Self Destruction
by BumbleBeee96
Summary: Sometimes things aren't as they seem, sometimes people remain alive, sometimes long lost relatives are brought into the mix. The new team are faced with a new person of interest, and that person may bring along similar traits of two people believed to be dead. Can she be trusted? **In the process of being re-written; just a touch-up and a bit of editing, nothing major** :)
1. Prologue

"_Lies and secrets, Tessa, they are like a cancer in the soul. They eat away what is good and leave only destruction behind."  
- Cassandra Clare, __Clockwork Prince. _

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"Give him ten seconds then shoot him," The clone did as the woman instructed and walked straight to Cutter, the end of the gun level with the top of the man's head, gently brushing his skin. Nick Cutter stood still, watching the scene with observant eyes. The clone, an exact copy of himself, was just a couple feet away from him. The same growing blonde hair, the same big blue eyes, everything down to the bone was completely identical to him. The clone began counting; following the orders it was given. The numbers echoed through Nick's head, each word cutting his time short, in just a few moments, he would be instructed to shoot. Nick had to do something. He had to try.

"Don't do it," The man reasoned, but the woman, Helen, countered, "You can't appeal to his feelings, Nick, he doesn't have any. Now tell me what this is," Despite the persistence of his ex-wife, Nick continued speaking to the clone, ignoring her. "You don't have to do what she says, you know. You have a choice," He stated firmly, keeping solid eye contact with him, hoping that somehow, he would understand, that somehow he would listen.

His whole body relaxed, relief flooding him as Nick watched the clone lower the weapon. His hope was short-lived. Almost instantly, the gun was brought back up to his head, the counting continuing to where it had left off. The clone didn't want to disobey its master, but Nick wasn't going to let that stop him. He wouldn't let Helen get away with this. He had to play her; he had to act like he knew. The excitement in her eyes seemed difficult to contain as he informed his ex-wife that he would tell her what she desired to know, he'd tell her what the artefact was. Before he even had a chance to conjure up some form of a lie, luck saved him. The familiar sound of Helen's voice suddenly filled the internal audio system, and edited voice recording from her, instructing all of the clones to stop obeying her. The cleaner clones that stood around the ARC, protecting Helen, immediately obeyed the recording, dropping their weapons as if it were Helen's actual voice ordering them to stop listening to her. Yet his own clone did not change, he kept the weapon held high. It was confusing for him, is mind was all of a sudden filled with the conflict of obeying and disobeying; the possibility of free will. He didn't know what to do. Helen had turned frantic though, desperation seeping through her voice as she tried to convince the other clones it wasn't her, it was no use for them. They followed the command to stop obeying her, there was no way she could alter their minds.

Nick smiled at his ex-wife, and he couldn't help but look a little smug as he saw her plan falling apart right in front of her, "It's over, Helen," The man stated. For Helen, it wasn't. She believed otherwise, she believed that there was still hope for part of the plan to be completed.

Helen turned to face the clone, her dark eyes stuck on the identical copy of her husband, determined to not let him finish obeying her. "Listen to my voice," She instructed; her tone softer now, an attempt to soothe the clone, to make it listen. "Complete your mission."

Nick's eyes followed her as she ran towards the exit of the room, pausing at the doors. He watched her cautiously, observing her actions, trying to discover what she was up to. The clone's sudden movement brought his gaze back to it, his eyes widening as the clone clicked open a suitcase beside it. A suitcase containing a bomb.

He still had time; he could still try to reason. The gun was away from the man's head, he was able to run towards the clone, watching it as buttons were pressed, initiating the bomb and the trigger.

"Look, I know you can hear me. I know you can understand. You don't have to obey her," Nick told him, placing a gentle hand on the clone's shoulder, attempting to turn its attention onto him; it might make it easier to convince it to stop if it could look at him.

"But, she made me," Was all Nick received in response. The words were spoken so simply, as if it were the only answer it could have possibly have said. After all does any living creature ever dare go against its creator? Then again, does any other living creature have someone to go against? Do they have to obey direct orders like he did?

"You're a human being, you have a choice," Nick retorted, watching his cloned self stare down at the bomb. He desperately hoped the clone was thinking about the words he was speaking, he needed it to understand.

"Don't listen to him. Follow your instruction," Helen ordered, still standing by the exit, her eyes flickering between the corridor ahead and the clone in the room. Most likely debating whether she should run yet.

"You're not a machine, you're a free man," Nick continued to persuade, and the more the clone listened to his real self, the more Nick seemed to make sense in his mind. "You don't want to die," The man argued. But that was wrong.

"I don't know what death is," The clone stated, glancing over at the real Nick Cutter, then down at the detonator he held in his hands. He wasn't sure what to do anymore. It felt wrong going against his orders, it was like there was a force, a barrier, inside his head, and every time he attempted to cross it, every time he thought about disobeying her, he was pushed back, was he strong enough to do it?

"Trust me, life's better," Nick informed, his voice soft, gentle, inviting. It was as if the clone could feel the warmth of life in his words, of not being ordered around like a machine. Could life be better?

"Don't listen to him!" Helen yelled, before slipping out between the doors, her footsteps echoing through the corridors as she pushed herself onwards, ready to get away from the oncoming explosion.

The clone ignored her, turning to face his real self before letting one simple command escape his own lips, "Save yourself,"

Nick was confused for a moment, his expression showing every inch of it, until he fully grasped what the clone had ordered him to do. He ran. His legs forced him to run as far away from the bomb and the clone as possible. It had listened to him; the clone had at least partly understood his words. It had given Nick a chance to live.

The clone watched as his real self ran through the doors, leaving his sight. He glanced down at the bomb, his mind still filled with too many thoughts, thoughts that confused him, that made him question his entire existence. He took another look at the doors, then back at the bomb. Before he knew it, his own legs were making him move towards the exit. He wasn't sure whether it was to experience the life that his real self had assured him he could have, or whether it was to return to his creator. Either way, as he pressed the button on the detonator, he knew he had at least run far enough away to chance a survival. The bomb exploded, the heat attacking the clone as the force pressed him forward into the ground. As the waves of pressure from the bomb rang through the ARC, the building went down, rooms turning into complete destruction, all of the equipment ripped apart by the explosion. The bomb had been initiated, and it had taken the ARC down with it.

Captain Becker, head of security, and Connor Temple, genius of the ARC, stormed through the rooms that were once offices of the ARC. It wasn't long until they found who they were looking for. Nick Cutter. The only problem was that looks could often be deceiving. The clone felt the debris lifting off him, and a fresh wave of pain fell through him. He had never felt pain like it. Burns, bruises, wounds, blood. It was all new to him. And he didn't like it. Connor managed to lift the man he assumed to be Nick Cutter up from the ground, with help from Becker. Once secured across their shoulders, the two men carried the clone out of the crumbling ARC in order to meet the rest of their team. The fresh, chill air hit them swiftly once they were safely out from the plumes of smoke. The clone wasn't focused on the air around him; he only wanted to find one person. He glanced around the faces he recognised as his real self's team members, but where was his creator?

"Where's Helen?" The clone questioned, desperately hoping someone had an answer.

"Think she's still inside," Connor coughed out, hands rested on his knees as his lungs drew in sharp breaths of fresh air, clearing the smoke from within. The blonde woman, whom he identified as Abby Maitland, wandered over to the man, rubbing his back with a gentle hand in comfort. What had happened to Helen though, and the important object she had? He had to find her, to help her, it was part of the mission he was brought to do. It was all he knew how to do. The clone swiped the flashlight from the ground beside him and began to walk back inside, only taking notice of his surroundings once again as the woman known as Jenny Lewis appeared by his side.

"Nick! She wouldn't lift a finger to save you," Jenny reasoned, her chocolaty eyes focused on his, the sun highlighting the amber flecks inside. The clone smiled at her as he remembered his, or at least his real self's memories, of Helen Cutter.

"Yeah, I know," He responded, speaking only the truth. That wasn't the point, the point was that he had to save her, he had to help her; it was what he was supposed to do.

"Don't go," She pleaded, desperation falling easily through her fragile tone, "This is a mistake," Everything she said triggered memories of a Claudia Brown, from what his real self's memories told him, was an identical copy of this woman here, only different. Some form of timeline fracture was the only apparent explanation for that situation. His real self had never found the truth. It was the words that she spoke which brought these memories back to him, they were practically the same words that Claudia had spoken before his real self had entered an anomaly, and then she disappeared, never to be seen or heard of again.

"I'll be fine," He assured her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, something he had picked up on as a comforting thing to do. It was dropped almost immediately as his sense of duty returned; he had to get Helen back. Without another glance back, the clone wandered back inside the building, determined to find his creator.

Debris shifted on the ground, wood and dry wall falling off from the person underneath. Nick Cutter managed to rise from the destruction, rotating his shoulders slightly as he tried to free the aching his muscles were filled with. Helen had really out done herself this time. The man tried to manoeuvre around the fizzling wires and flames that began travelling along the wreckage, leaving intimidating shadows against what was left of the walls. Nick glanced around, he needed to find a way out; he needed to find his team members.

The clone flinched away from the flames that licked the walls around him, the heat radiated against his skin, leaving his skin to feeling uncomfortable. He hadn't found any sign of Helen yet, but he had to keep looking, he needed to find her. The clone instantly drew away from a doorway near him for fear of back draft, he knew not to trust the fire, the way the flames danced around him, drawn to his skin, determined to get their hands on him. He wouldn't let them. He knew fire would be painful, and he really didn't want to feel any more pain. He hadn't realised how truly vulnerable he was, not until now.

Certain routes cut Nick Cutter off from finding his way out. The rubble was too much to shift in some cases, in others, there were too many flames blocking his continuation down the corridors. As he turned another corner, he couldn't help but let his mind wander, what had happened to Helen? Where was the artefact? Was it safe? Where was she? Did she make it out alive? What was the artefact actually for? How did it work? Would he ever find the answers he was so desperate to know?

The clone entered another room, soon spotting the important object that his creator wanted so badly to protect and understand. It was situated near the unconscious brunette, Helen. Before he even comprehended what was happening, he slid the jacket off from his body and wrapped it around the important object. The clone stashed it away, hiding underneath some fallen rubble before he attempted to rouse Helen. There was something special about the object, he knew it was important, his creator had said it herself, but there was something else. For some reason, he felt in his mind that it might not be safe in her hands. That led to more confusion. He really didn't understand how his mind was now working. It felt so free, so different to what he was accustomed to, to what Helen had forced upon him, but that simply created more uncertainty. He wasn't sure what to believe, what to think. Should he follow his initiative, or his creator, Helen? His ears picked up on the coughs created by Helen as she awoke; he glanced back down at her. At least she was alive.

The woman looked at him, her dark eyes almost penetrating though his skin as she spoke, "You came back for me?" Her voice was riddled with surprise. That puzzled the clone even more. She had instructed him to be loyal to her, to help her, why was she so shocked to see him.

He replied simply, not knowing what else to say other than, "Yeah,"

"You were always so sentimental," Helen stated, her voice different to how she usually spoke to him. It was soft, yet it still wore that certain hint of sarcasm. The clone couldn't help but think she assumed a little too much. "Where's the artefact?" And just like that, her tone changed, it was more demanding, as if she simply came back to her senses. She wanted the object, he knew where it was, and part of him longed to tell her, yet another part insisted that it was best left alone, in the hands of his real self. He would know what to do.

"I don't know. It'll be wherever you left it," The clone informed; avoiding eye contact. He was unsure as to whether she would be able to tell if he was lying, he thought he had a better chance of getting away from it if he didn't make eye contact. The eyes showed too much in the majority of people, they were like their own special gateways into emotion.

"What did it do, Nick? Why is it so important?" She continued, and it was the way she spoke to him that triggered what flickered onto his mind just moments ago, in this moment she believed him to be his real self, not the clone of Nick Cutter.

However, this time he could answer her question truthfully, "I haven't the faintest idea. Now, you coming or aren't you?" He queried, determined to keep her from realising that he was the clone, not his real self. The flames around were starting to unnerve him, he really wanted to leave this place and never come back.

"I'm sorry, Nick," Helen called out, stepping forward a few steps, watching him as he stopped in his tracks, "But I can't let you go."

"What the hell are you talking about now?" The clone questioned, turning to face her, instead he found a gun in front of her, pointed straight at her. Now he knew how his real self had felt, it wasn't the nicest feeling having a gun level with you. In a moment's astonishment, he turned around and then back again to fix his gaze to her. "Oh, for god's sake" He muttered under his breath, realising this was how he was going to die, after everything that had just happened, he was going to die by the hands of his real self's ex-wife.

He watched her, waiting for whatever she was planning to do, instead she chose to somewhat explain her reasons; "Things have to change, Nick. The future is more important than either of us,"

He could have rolled his eyes as he responded to her little comment, "You really know how to pick your moments, don't you?" He stated, his voice edged with sarcasm.

"If you'd seen what I've seen then you would understand," She continued, despite the distance between them the clone could have sworn he saw tears in her eyes. She really was going to kill him, her own husband, or at least what she believed. "I'm so sorry, Nick," She added, reaching to cock the gun, until deciding on her final words, "I wish there was another way."

Those last words rang in his mind, if she wished there was another way then why couldn't she find it. Why did she have to do this? That was what he didn't understand. As he stood waiting for her to press the trigger, he decided that he wouldn't reveal himself, he owed it to his real self, the one who made him believe, that maybe, just maybe, if things had been different, he could have had a chance to be human. After all, his real self told him that that was what he was, and strangely, he began to believe him, he really did have his own free will. And now he chose to die. He chose to protect his real self. One thing had left to be said, one thing he really wanted her to hear.

"You know what, Helen? You're not as smart as I thought you were," He stated. He once thought the world of her for creating him. Yet now, now that he knew she was unable to tell the difference between him, the copy, and her real husband, his opinion of her greatly diminished. She wasn't doing the right thing like she planned, he understood now; killing his real self couldn't possibly change what she wanted to change. He knew it in his heart that his real self wasn't responsible for the damage she accused him of. His thought train was stopped as his eyes focused on her hand, he watched as she pulled the trigger, he heard the shot as it rang out but nothing could prepare his body for the pain he felt afterwards. The cold and loneliness that soon followed as Helen ran off leaving him to die. Through all of the pain that echoed through his body, he forced himself to limp back into the room where he had stashed the important object. It was there that he collapsed in a heap against the wall, unable to hold himself up any longer.

The silence around the ARC was broken as a shot sounded out and Nick Cutter discovered it had come from the other side of the ARC building. Realizing that Helen possibly had a gun on her, he quickly rushed as fast as he could through the debris, tripping and stumbling as his mind filled with nightmarish thoughts. What if she had hurt one of his team members? He desperately hoped she hadn't been foolish enough to take her anger out on them. The corridors were so full of wreckage that he had trouble finding a suitable route towards where he planned to go. There was a door to his left that was still standing, that could lead to a free corridor. His hand swiftly reached out for the handle, pushing it down as it swung open revealing something he didn't have time to register in his mind. His determination to find his team members had unwillingly pushed his legs on further and he found himself being pulled in before comprehending what exactly he had run into. The ground beneath him changed from concrete to soft pine cones and dirt so swiftly that it had felt almost impossible. His lungs soaked in the clean air around him, free of smoke, free of the fire that crackled in his ears. The area was open, it appeared to be a forest, from his quick observations he settled on the cretaceous period. There was no time to marvel at the scene around; he had to go back to the ARC. His body spun around, expecting to find the anomaly he had entered this place through, but found nothing. Frantically, he turned around, his gaze flickering in a variety of directions as he hoped to find the glowing ball of light that had led him to this different time period. There was no light. No anomaly. No way home. He was trapped.

After the fire in the ARC burst through parts of the ceiling, the heavy smoke covering the pale blue sky above, Connor finally received permission from Abby to find Cutter. The man ran as fast as his poor legs could muster, his brain barely registering the flames, the falling pipes, the insulation and the spark of broken wires around him. The building was a wreck. He searched room after room, as quickly as possible each time in an effort to find his mentor, preferably alive. The thick smoke continued to blind him, stinging his eyes causing small tears to fall from them, but he eventually found the man he was looking for, unfortunately nothing could have prepared the young man from the sight he was forced to see. Nick Cutter lay hunched up against the wall, his hand clutching his chest, blood seeping across the skin from the bullet wound.

"Cutter…" Connor's words died away, his voice barely above a whisper as he watched the man cough in agony.

Through the memories of his real self embedded inside of him, the clone recognised the young man, "Connor," He murmured in return, acknowledging the man as he stood, his eyes filled with devastation. His memories told him that Connor always did the right thing, and the clone knew he was terribly brave for risking his own life to find who he thought was the real Nick Cutter.

"Listen, I'm going to get you out of…" Connor began, his voice full of desperation, as he tried to lift the man but the clone moaned in agony, he couldn't do it, he couldn't move, the pain was too intense.

"Don't… Don't do that," He requested, slumping back against Connor, and resting on the wall behind him.

"Sorry," The young man responded, sincerity in his eyes. The clone only wished he could have met more kind people like Connor Temple in his short life.

"It's okay," He reassured him, lifting his hand, which felt as heavy as lead, and gently putting it on Connor's, "Just sit with me, alright?" He asked, hoping to die beside the kind man who had tried to help him.

Connor managed to speak an ok in reply as he stayed positioned beside the clone. The clone noticed how solemn Connor was; leading him to remember how he most likely thought it was the real Nick Cutter dying. He probably should have corrected the assumption but he knew his real self would find Connor soon, he knew he was alive, he could feel it. Besides, there were more pressing matters to attend to in the short time they had.

Connor glanced beside him as the clone managed to sit up and reveal the important object from his wrapped up jacket. "Listen," He began, handing the object to Connor, "This matters, I don't know why but it does. So you have to find out what it means, okay?" He asked, and Connor agreed despite not wanting to come to terms with the fact that his mentor was dying. "It's on you now," Cutter began but Connor shook his head this time. "Don't worry," Cutter assured as his voice weakened, "You have your whole team to help you. You have your friends and you have your life. Be happy about that Connor, please."

Connor nodded much to his own disapproval to the clone, biting his lip as more water spilled from his eyes which had reddened from the smoke and tears, "Come on, we can do this together. We've always done it together." The young man argued, his voice trembling, his breath shaking with each word.

Cutter's clone nodded before saying, "You will and you can, just not with me per say," He could see that Connor was confused, but soon he wouldn't be, soon his real self would explain. Yet he felt as if his real self's memories were flooding into his own brain more than usual, it was like he wasn't only recognising them, he was starting to live them. It was becoming harder and harder to distinguish his own short-lived life with that of the real Nick Cutter. The clone assumed that it was from the state he was in, he was becoming muddled because he was dying, his life was slowly fading away, a life that he felt he didn't deserve, that didn't properly belong to him, but one he was grateful for anyway.

"Tell, tell Claudia Brown…" No, he decided that was best for his real self to do, "Never mind. Doesn't matter," He finished; his voice more quiet now, weaker. He leaned back, resting his shoulder against the kind young man and closed his eyes. If he truly were human like his real self had said then he hoped he had redeemed himself, he hoped he had done the right thing. He hoped his real self would prove Helen wrong, he knew he could, he knew it. His mind was becoming more difficult to understand now, everything was fading; he was fading. This was what death felt like. It turned out that the real Nick Cutter was right, he didn't want to die, but apparently, for things to work out how they were supposed to, it was the right thing to do.


	2. Chapter One: Site 333

Behind her, the light flickered and shimmered, sending a golden illumination through the room. The glass-like shards of energy circled around each other, creating patterns in the sea of light; a beautiful but dangerous phenomenon that nature had brought upon the world. They were gateways through different times, each as real as the next. The danger lay not only in the creatures that may surface, but in the endless possibilities that they hold, and in the way that time became so corruptible, so fragile, time was not a thing to be messed with.

She glanced back at the anomaly, the glow reflecting off her eyes, lighting up the deep blue within. She hoped no creatures came charging through, that wouldn't help her at all; in fact it would probably get her killed, or at least ruin what she was planning on doing here. With stealth only gained from years of practice, the girl moved across the floor silently, her footsteps creating no noise on the ground below her. The room was darkened, concrete floors and walls, thick metal doors, all which added to the eerie atmosphere around her. She'd been here before, several times in fact, but she had never been here alone. It had always been with her mother. As the girl reached the point in the room where she needed to be, she moved behind the table surface computer, her fingertips tracing across the shut down device. It was dead. Someone had been down here though, someone who hadn't been prepared to use the computer, given that a group of batteries, from inside the empty torches beside the table, had been bandaged together. It would have created just enough juice for them to get what they needed, whatever that was.

She slid the bag strap off her shoulder swiftly, laying it down beside the device. Inside, was a large battery, holding enough power and more to figure out whatever she needed to know. And what she needed to know right now was what her mother had been planning, where she was, and whether the missing government operatives had anything to do with it. They were most likely the ones who had used the torch batteries to power the device, it was the only explanation. Who else would want to come down here? Who would want to be in this future?

Blue eyes hit the ceiling, glancing above her. Something was there. There was no mistaking the thunderous noise that had echoed through the darkness, the sound of crunching metal hitting the floor up from her. A creature. She hadn't doubted that they would sense her presence; she had simply hoped that it wouldn't have been so sudden, so soon. It must have already been in the building. She needed more time than this. Returning to the device in front of her, she unhooked the wires from the bandaged batteries and attached them to her own, watching as the surface computer powered up, the illumination from the screen lighting up her face. Her fingers floated over the surface smoothly, rebooting the system so that it opened up on its last point. Whatever file had been open when the device shut down would soon be revealed. Just as she had predicted, the screen flashed, bringing up the last opened file. File 333. That was when that dangerous curiosity of hers decided to take over, and she couldn't resist looking straight though the file, hoping to discover what it contained. It was a route. A route through two anomalies, one that led from this time to the Cretaceous period, and then another which led into the Pliocene epoch. That's when it all came together in her head, like pieces of the puzzle finally falling into place, making sense of the recent events in her life.

"This is it!" She whispered to herself, excitement evident in her voice. "That's what it all meant; File 333 is code for Site 333. That's what she was always talking about. The hominids that died there, she must've wanted to destroy them all," Everything in her mind came clattering down, her thoughts escaping through her lips. It made sense now. At least most of it did. This was definitely something she had wanted to find. The eager mood she was filled with was soon diminished by more metal clashing above her, and the sinister click of the future predator's communication echoing through the empty building.

"Damn," Her voice was barely audible, she had kept it down. Not that it would matter much. The predators here were designed to hear the faintest sound; even the very beat off her heart attracted them. She needed to get out of here, and fast. The girl reached for the smaller device she had retrieved the last time she had been here with her mother, and inserted it into the surface computer. A small click as the devices connected told her that she could begin the download process. The code she had memorised from her mother was exactly what she needed to type in to allow the two anomaly routes, and the anomaly matrix, to download onto the small device. 65359.

"Come on," She murmured to herself, the nervousness in her tone unmistakable even as she spoke under her breath. One more crash sounded above her. Closer now. She glanced down, watching the percentage line slowly crawl its way up through the numbers. 50%, 51%, 52%...

"This is taking too long," Her voice was edged with an impatient tone, one that seemed clear in her whole body. She was pacing now; pacing in front of the devices, silently begging for them to hurry up so that she could get out of there. Then, her heart stopped. Her breath was held in the back of her throat. Another crash. This time, it came from the door holding her in the room. Her gaze flicked to it, the door was still closed. Not for long.

She glanced back down at the surface computer, as if her stares would quicken the process. 70%. "Come on, come on, come on," She begged, her voice a whisper through the abandoned building, desperation seeping into every crack. The metal door creaked under the weight, a dint clearly forming through the silver. This was taking too long. The future predator would undoubtedly break through into the room if the download didn't complete itself. Her hand crawled down to the pistol in her garter holster, a sign of defence. There wouldn't be time to escape before it broke through. She had to be ready for it. The gun was brought into the air, aimed directly at the metal door, one that was looking increasingly unsteady as the minutes ticked by.

89%.

"Almost there..." Her eyes shot back to the door as the metal was flung from the hinges, crashing against the railing of the small staircase, hitting the floor with a deathly thud. It was simply a blur. The future predator leapt towards her, the glow of the anomaly reflecting off its long, sharp claws. Speed faster than lightning. She pressed the trigger, aiming as best as she could in the dim light surrounding her. The bullets flew straight at the creature, burrowing into its skin, ripping apart the life inside. The body crashed to the floor, only inches away from her, blood seeping out from the wounds.

"Thank god for silencers," The girl murmured to herself, before rushing back to the devices, watching the download process. 97%. 98%...

The swift clicking of the future predators could be heard from above, calling to each other, communicating. They must have heard the disruption. Now she really didn't have time. No time at all. 99%.

"Perfect," She whispered, hearing the beep from the devices, informing her that the download was complete. She slid the pistol back into place, lifting the smaller device out from the surface computer before running into the anomaly she had previously used to get here. She leapt through the air, nearing the flickering light. It was weaker now, ready to close. The ground she came crashing down onto was softer, the gentle dry earth of a Cretaceous forest. She stood up, watching as the anomaly closed, restoring order, leaving the future predators where they belong. The girl had been waiting in this very spot of the Cretaceous for two weeks now, waiting for this anomaly to open, to allow her to go into the future and download the information she needed. Now, she knew it was worth it.

The device was already turned on, the new files all listed on the small screen. Right at the top was File 333. The file she wanted to use. The file that may give her the answers she sought. The journey to the area of where the Pliocene anomaly would open wasn't far, only a few minutes away. She had to go through it. She had to see it for herself. The only thing that unnerved her at this moment was the silence in the forest. It wasn't right, wasn't normal, almost intimidating. Usually it was more full of life, there wasn't even a bird's calling. That was definitely strange. She pressed on, walking through the forest until the she arrived at the site, the site where the anomaly would open. The files on the device shifted underneath her fingertips, following her instructions; and then it opened; only small at first, just a little bright light in mid-air. As the light expanded, the glass-like shards of energy appeared, floating around the air, until the anomaly finished growing, and the energy simply circled around the light, no longer free in the atmosphere.

Stepping through an anomaly didn't affect a person greatly; a little tingle would sometimes ripple through the body, like tiny electric vibes dancing around you. It was the scene on the other side that made a difference. No matter how many anomalies you travel through, changing so quickly from one environment to another, on time period to another, was always an unusual experience. And this era the girl had entered had simply took her breath away. It was beautiful. The rocky hills, bright blue skies, no creatures in sight. The air was clean, fresh, running water could be heard from the rivers around, and the heat was gentle on the skin. It was a nice change. Well, as long as she didn't run into any kind of unwelcoming creatures on her travels.

The small pebbles rippled down the slopes as she made her way across the hills, in search for answers. She wasn't sure what to expect, or what she was hoping to find. It just made sense. Although, it had been a month since the government operatives had disappeared, so whatever could've been here, may not be now. It was only since the operatives had been after her mother that she was interested in coming here. She hadn't seen her mother in two months, she wanted answers. She wanted something.

"What's this?" The girl murmured to herself; crouching down beside a backpack tangled in one of the bushes. It was a brown material, the same kind her mother had, whether it actually belonged to her was another question. But who else's would it be? She dropped the backpack from her hands, leaving it beside the bush at the edge of the cliff before wandering down the slopes, following the sound of rushing water, a lake.

The stench that radiated from the area was unmistakeably the smell of rotting flesh, decomposition of corpses. She rounded the corner, searching for the origin of the smell, not that it took long. The corpses were in plain sight, scattered across the ground beside the lake. As she moved closer, she noticed the details; they had only been dead for approximately a month. And they weren't human bodies of today's structure; they were hominids, early humans. Her mother must have killed them. That's what she wanted. She couldn't have succeeded though, mankind was still here. Whatever had happened, she was betting it had something to do with the government operatives. They must have stopped her. But how?

This was Site 333. They were the first ever humans to exist. It was what her mother had been looking for. She wanted to end the human race, and had planned to do so by starting from the beginning, not allowing them even the slightest chance of doing anything wrong to the planet. She wanted to prevent everything mankind had ever done to the Earth. And this was how she planned on doing so. She failed.

The question was what happened to her? How did the government operatives stop her? Did they kill her? The girl stormed off around the cliff, finding her way to the area under where the backpack was found. Something wasn't right. It was as if everything went cold, walking onto the spot beneath the backpack, she was forced to see something that she wasn't prepared for. Her mother. Her hand flew to her mouth in attempt to stifle a scream, and she could hear her heartbeat echoing through her chest, through her head, it was then she realised that she'd been holding her breath. She eased the air out of her lungs gently, her widened eyes not moving from the dead body laid out across the ground. The sight made her ill, yet she didn't know how to respond, she didn't know what to do. Her mother was stopped. And now she was dead, as decomposed as the hominids by the lake. She was angry, frustrated, upset, confused, everything was too much. The scream she let out into the world didn't seem enough, the scream so full of the emotions she had never allowed herself to express. A flock of birds nearby had taken to the sky, disrupted by the sudden noise invading their otherwise peaceful environment. Dust flew up into the air as she fell to her knees, feeling stupid for all of the feelings that had overthrown her. Why had she done this? Why had she come here? What had she been expecting to find? This wasn't it. She needed to pull herself together, or else she would never survive out here. She needed to push it all back, all the raw emotions that had fell forward, it all needed to go. She couldn't handle any of it, she didn't want to.

She let out one deep breath before standing up, taking one last lingering look at her mother, dead, beyond saving, gone. The girl walked away, leaving the body in peace, and headed up one of the slopes ahead of her, moving on past the situation she was in just moments ago. She had to forget it all. She couldn't let feelings run her life, she had to lock the emotions up; it was what she had learned to stay alive through the anomalies. They screwed up concentration, they made you care; they got you killed.

She didn't want to have to see her mother like that, she never really came to terms with the fact that her mother could die. She was always so strong-minded, strong-willed, and never weak; how could something as simple as death overtake her entire existence? The worst part was that she hadn't even known her mother for that long, just over a year, but nonetheless she acted as a mother to her, or had she? She hadn't ever taken much notice, she was just so happy she had managed to find her birth mother, she hadn't even allowed herself to have an opinion on the matter, she didn't think for herself when she was with her mother. And now, she didn't even know how she felt on the situation. These were the complications that she didn't want to be a part of, but complications that just didn't seem to want to leave her, no matter how hard she tried.

It wasn't long until she had reached the peak of the rocky hill, the view overlooking small rivers, forests, and mountains in the distance. The Pliocene epoch was one spectacular period of time; the nature around her was pure beauty. Just below her, halfway down the slope a family of hominids sat, communicating with each other, some further down, drinking from the clean waters. This family would begin the true evolution of humans, and being able to see them was an amazing experience. She had finally witnessed the first ever human family. It was something she would never forget.


	3. Chapter Two: The Familiar Stranger

The girl wandered through the thick forest of conifers, keeping an eye out for any predators that might try to sneak up on her. From observation, she had figured out she was somewhere during the late Jurassic period. She wasn't so sure at first, until finding a herd of Diplodocus grazing nearby at the edge of the trees. She then found herself suddenly absorbed in watching them, the way they interacted with each other, the way they lived, how alert they were on predators around them. Unfortunately, she had to pull herself away from the rock she was perched on, and keep on moving. She couldn't afford to run into any carnivores, mainly the Allosaurus, especially considering how territorial they were. All she really wanted was to find a new anomaly; she never stayed in one place for too long, usually just a couple months, and that was only if she really wanted to stay. The Jurassic period was definitely interesting though, and the environment was beautiful, all the new plants that dominated the earth since the air became richer in oxygen. This experience had to be short-lived, she needed to get out of there, find a new time period to live in for a little while, then as always, move on again, and again, and again.

As the girl walked through the forest, she stuck to the shadows of the trees, ensuring that she would see a predator before it saw her. She hoped to find an anomaly through the forest, and that would be done by using a little method she had picked up on a couple years ago when first studying the anomalies, with the help of someone she once knew. The anomalies were highly magnetic, and tended to draw metal objects towards them, by using the knife she held in her hand, she would wander the area waiting for the anomaly to attract the blade, which would then in turn cause pressure on her grip and alert her to the swirling ball of energy. It wasn't the best method, but given she had no electricity and proper technology to build an alert system; it was the most reliable one to use.

As the sun travelled the extent of the sky, reaching to the point of the horizon where darkness would soon overcome the world, the idea of giving up for the day seemed like the best choice, it would be useless to wander around in the dark when she had no idea what was lingering in the shadows around her. She knelt down into the dirt, tightening a set of laces on her boot when the blade beneath her fingers shifted slightly, so gently that she had believed to have imagined the whole thing. As she began to search for a place to stay for the night, another tug pulled the knife away from her, the force clear against her skin this time. The girl glanced around, looking through the trees for the ball of light. Relief finally flooded through her as the pull on the knife became stronger, leading her in the direction of the anomaly, one that would take her to a new time period.

She soon found herself standing in front of the familiar circling ball of light, the anomaly. Everything about them were beyond understanding, how nature created this force of energy, this tear in time and space, was a complete mystery; a beautiful but deadly mystery. As her eyes focused on the heart of the energy, a shadow blocked the light, something was coming through. She slid the knife back into her boot holster and took her pistols out, raising them into the air. As the shadow neared, the edges became clearer; it was beginning to look almost like the outline of a human. Dealing with a human had to be easier than a creature, well, she hoped.

Weapons held steadily, eyes focused, no distractions; she had to ensure that her guard wouldn't falter; she had to be ready for whoever was going to enter this time. Vague features were visible now; it was a man, around 6' in height. She took a couple steps back, apprehension sinking in. Only a few more seconds ticked by until the man was stood directly in front of her, confusion in his expression, and a possible glint of curiosity in his eyes, although she could've easily imagined it. The strangest aspect of it all was the familiarity in his appearance, she was almost certain she had seen his face before, but where?

"Who are you?" The man queried; a Scottish accent evident in his voice. He took little to no time to ask his question, catching the girl slightly by surprise. She was sure that he had been travelling through the anomalies for a while now; his dirty blonde hair was clearly outgrown, his blue eyes were weary; living out in the past all by yourself often meant little sleep, it was too dangerous to remain vulnerable for too long; that was the first part of survival you had to learn straight away, otherwise you're dead.

"I think the better question would be who are you?" She responded, her voice steady, controlled, her eyes not leaving his, "Considering I have the gun," She added, keeping the point completely level with his eyes. This was the second time in approximately a year he was faced with the end of a gun to his head; these things really needed to stop happening.

"Nick Cutter," He answered her question with ease, he didn't seem to have anything to hide so far, it appeared that he wasn't very interested in her causing any trouble at all, although the guns pointed to his head may have played a part in it.

But it wasn't his attitude that she was focused on, it was the name. Her arms lowered slightly, almost unwillingly; it was the name that sent the realisation shooting through her. It was the name that she recognised, that's why he felt so familiar. She had seen his face once before, in a file she read, a file that included two photos, one of a woman, and one of the man standing right in front of her.

His voice brought her back to reality as he tried to snap her out of the trance-like-state she found herself entering. She dropped the pistols, letting them fall to the ground beside her, she wasn't a threat to him, she could never shoot him, not after realising who he was. Yet she felt completely out of place, as if it were all too surreal, it didn't feel right, and it was the unanswered questions swimming through her mind that she hated the most, especially when she felt that no one would ever know the answers, there was only so many questions she could ask him, the rest were things she would never find out, no one ever would.

"My name's Jayme, Jayme Cutter," The girl clarified, the contrast between her voice and the feelings that overwhelmed her on the inside were so clear to her. How her voice didn't tremble or falter as she spoke was unbelievable. It wasn't the first time that she had been in a situation similar to this; the first time was with her mother. It had been a month since she discovered her dead body, and the crazy part was she had only spent little over a year with her. She had barely known her own mother, and now she was gone, she simply hoped that history didn't plan on repeating itself.

"Cutter?" He repeated; astonishment in his voice. It had caught him off guard, but it wasn't long until he shook it away and found eye contact with her, "Who the hell are you?" He raised his voice in question, sounding so much less calm than he had done only moments ago.

"Just hear me out, okay? Not long after you and your ex-wife, Helen, started dating, you got her pregnant, right? About eighteen and a half years ago she gave birth to a baby girl, you two gave her up to a foster home, I'm pretty sure that's not something you would forget," She stated, trying her best to sound composed; hopefully she would get through this a lot easier the second time round.

"What is it you're trying to say exactly?" Nick questioned, watching the girl with curious eyes. The strange thing was that he knew exactly what she was saying; he just didn't know what to say back. It was like everything was moving too fast, burning too bright, everything she was saying seemed to be too intense for him to hear, to understand.

She took a deep breath, glancing away from him for a moment before managing the courage she needed to tell him the truth that she had only ever told once in her life, when she told her mother. "The daughter you gave up all those years ago is me. I saw my birth certificate, you and my mother signed it; you chose the name that I still have today, I recognise you from the photo in the files I found, I mean the photo was taken a few years ago but the name's the same. You're my father,"

Everything she said, everything she had told him was precisely the words that he had imagined she would say. He thought back to the new born baby that he had held in his arms just over eighteen years ago, the tiny blue eyes that looked up at him as he smiled back, the same blue eyes that were looking at him now, the tiny head of hair on top of the child's head, a shade of dark brown that both the baby and this girl had in common. The girl standing in front of him was exactly how he had envisioned his baby girl once she was all grown up. A mixture of both himself and Helen wrapped up into one young lady. But it couldn't be true. If this was his daughter, if everything she had told him was the truth, then how did she get here? Why was she here? Then again, what if it wasn't? What if it were a trick, a way to manipulate him, or to take him captive for some strange reason, a way to earn his trust? Although, why would anyone go into this much trouble to do that? And how would they even know where to find him? Yet the fact that he had stumbled onto the path of his own daughter, the fact that she knew about the anomalies, all seemed like too much of a coincidence to be true. Too many questions shooting through his mind, how could he possibly know what to believe? "It's impossible; you couldn't be my daughter,"

"Please just listen to me, okay? My mother believed me; I need you to as well. I promise you, I'm not lying"

"Wait, you knew Helen?" Cutter questioned, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Yeah, I was with her for about a year, then I left; she didn't seem like the sanest of people, look it's all an incredibly long story, one that I _will_ tell you when the time's right,"

"Yeah, well, her sanity hasn't been stable for a long time. Where did you leave her? Do you know what she was planning?"

The brunette hesitated at the question, only for a second, yet long enough for Nick to notice. She broke the eye contact with him, before regaining composure and turning back to look at him once more, "I-I don't know, it doesn't matter anyway, she's dead, probably for about two months now,"

"Dead?" Nick questioned; it all felt slightly strange. He didn't love her, hadn't for a long time now, but to hear that she was dead, gone, it wasn't something that he could honestly take lightly, not that anyone needed to know that, "How did she die?"

"Not sure; it looked like she had fallen from a cliff, or pushed. Could've been this secret government department, but I can't be sure,"

"Government? You mean the ARC?"

Jayme paused, her expression revealing what appeared as her trying to figure the man out, "How do _you _know about the ARC?"

"Used to work for them, I helped start the whole thing when I found my first anomaly,"

"Wait, you _worked _for them?"

"Why do you sound so surprised?" Nick questioned, matching the expression that the brunette adorned only moments ago.

"I don't trust them,"

"They're not bad people,"

"Then why haven't they found you yet?" She retorted, raising her eyebrows questioningly at him; she wasn't going to trust his judgements that easily. "And trust me, I know that some of them aren't bad people, but that doesn't mean all of them have good intentions,"

"I trust them, and anyway, they may have tried to find me, but I've travelled through a lot of anomalies since then, it would be next to impossible. And what do you mean that _some_ of them aren't bad people; do you know an ARC member?"

She glanced down at the ground for a second, she wasn't going to tell him that story; she didn't want to relive it, "How long have you been stuck here?" She questioned, swiftly changing the subject.

He knew what she was doing, he knew she didn't want to answer his questions, and he wouldn't press, not right now, "About a year, I think,"

None of the information he was giving her made sense, it all conflicted with everything her mother had once told her. According to her, the chaos from the future was caused by the ARC, yet now her father was telling her that he worked for them, that no one on his team had bad intentions. It didn't even feel right calling them her parents, never mind the fact that she was unsure on what to believe; but she knew that she had to uncover the truth. She had to figure out what was behind the future that she wanted to stop; she had to find out who was in the right, and who was in the wrong. She just didn't expect everything to turn even more complicated; she didn't expect to find her father.

"Come on, we have to get out of here, unless you want to stay alone and vulnerable, where any predator can come along and kill you," The brunette stated, dropping down to the ground and picking up the pistols that she then slid into her holsters.

"How do I know I can trust you?" Nick asked, not moving from the spot he was currently standing on.

"You just have to, okay?" The brunette responded, "Now, are you coming?"

He smiled at her, "Sure,"

"Look, I know you're not sure whether you can believe me or not, but I can prove to you that I'm your daughter, it's just that right now you're going to have to trust me. I can't lose you when I've only just found you,"

"Then what're you waiting for, let's go," He stated, stepping out to walk through the forest of conifers, next to the girl who claimed was the daughter he had given up years ago. In reality, he honestly didn't know what to believe, but he would play it out, see how things go. He couldn't be vulnerable in front of her; he couldn't let his guard down; not when there was any proof that she was his daughter, not when all of this could be a trick. Yet he wanted to believe her so bad, he wanted it to be the truth, he wanted so bad to have family in his life again. She could be the daughter that he had always wondered about, that he had always dreamed of one day meeting, he had wanted to know where she was, if she was happy; he had never expected this. He had never imagined that she would be travelling through the anomalies, fighting for her life almost every day. He could remember how he often wondered what life would be like if they hadn't given her up, it was just that they were too young to raise a child, he and Helen hadn't even been dating for that long. No, he shook the thoughts out of his head; he would play it out and see what happens. Deep down though, there was a longing that this girl right next to him was in fact his long lost daughter.


	4. Chapter Three: Just Another Secret

"So Abby and Connor are back then?" Nick asked, turning away from the papers in front of him. He hadn't slept very well for the past few days since they'd resurfaced once more back in the present, and it showed. He had dark bags under his eyes and whenever he did sleep it was mostly when he fell asleep on the desk. For the past ten months, they had been switching between present and past, researching past animals for further information, and comparing them to what scientists believe them to be like. It was dangerous occasionally, but it helped pass the time while Nick thought of what to do about the ARC, and hoping that Abby, Connor and Danny were found, the first bit of news on them had been what his daughter had just announced. Apart from all of that, it was also an interesting way of bonding with her; he didn't really know how to react when she'd proven to him that she was his daughter, luckily she shared the same curiosity about the past and the anomalies as he did. Although they hadn't been able to find anything new about the anomalies since they lacked the equipment he once had at the ARC.

"Yes, they survived," Jayme replied, removing her sunglasses as she sauntered into the flat.

"I wouldn't suspect any less of them," He smiled, remembering his old team, "What about Danny?" He asked, hopefully.

"Sorry, but there's no word on him, so does that ruin whatever you've been planning?" She questioned, curiously.

"No," He turned back towards the jumble of papers. Most contained his research of the anomalies and creature behaviours; some were based on the ARC and the new team members that were brought in after Abby and Connor's disappearance. He'd only found one new girl who was called Jess, and the fact that the ARC had joined up with a private company, but he hadn't figured out why. Then there were the occasional papers which were copied from the files in the foster home that Jayme had been in. She was right, she was his daughter. He'd been given this proof from her a few months ago and since then he could finally give in to his hopes that she had been truthful all along, that she wasn't lying to him. First she had found Helen, now him; it was strange how much they had connected in a mere ten months. He felt as if he'd known her forever, he really felt like her father; this unfortunately brought along the burden of parenthood, the worrying, the protectiveness, and finally the guilt of leaving her in the first place. But he and Helen weren't ready for a child back then, now he had his chance to make up for it. To be fair, she was already grown up, she was nineteen now, but she was still young, and she had a lot to learn about life, and he would protect her through it. He would look after his daughter, just like any father should.

"By the way, do I ever get to find out this plan?" She asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Sure, just give me a sec,"

Jayme wandered into her bedroom, changing into sweatpants and a t-shirt. She pulled her dark brown hair into a bun, clipping back her full fringe in the process. She sat on the bed, glancing through her journal she had kept since she had first gone through the anomalies. There were recipes and ways of survival she used when in the past or future, creature analysis's, and research of the anomalies; things that her mother had told her, a couple things she had managed to figure out for herself. But it wasn't enough, there were so many things she wanted to know, how to close the anomalies, not just lock them like her father had said Connor could do, she wanted to understand the mystery behind this phenomenon, and how her mother had been able to open them. She was able to download the matrix to plot where anomalies have opened, but she still failed to open the device to see it, her mother hadn't told her that, nor had explained the other device, the one that allowed her mother to open anomalies, the one that Jayme didn't have. Her mother was dead; she had no way of knowing where she had left that device. What she knew she had to do was to keep her device a secret; she couldn't let anyone see it, not even her father. If messing with the anomalies is what creates the chaos from the future then there was no way she would show anyone it. She had one main mission in life; to keep people from taking advantage of the anomalies power, sooner or later, someone would take it too far, and despite what her father said, she was sure it would happen within the ARC. They may not be bad people, they may not plan on doing anything bad, but someday, someone would steal the information they had or someone would go rogue from the inside. That is what she wants to prevent; the only thing people should be doing with the anomalies is protecting the public, keeping the past in the past and the future in the future.

"Jayme, can you come in here?" Nick called.

She closed the journal, sliding it under her mattress and approached her father, who was still sat behind the desk.

"What's up?" She asked, causally sitting on the chair near him.

"Ready to know the plan?"

"I've been ready for a while now," She said, smiling.

"When a new anomaly opens, we'll track the location with the detector I've got, you'll go there, get yourself noticed. I want you to claim you came through the anomaly; don't tell them you've been back here at all, just pretend you've been there since you first went through. One small problem might be that they'll probably arrest you but it'll be fine, trust me,"

"What good will that do? Anyway I thought we were staying low,"

"I'll be the one staying low for the moment; I want to know if we can trust them, I don't want to appear when there might be someone there who we can't trust. We'll wait and see how it plays out. Anyway, they'll hardly keep you arrested forever, they can't. I'm hoping that if they search your name through databases they'll see we're related, I'm hoping that might get you on the inside,"

"Oh yeah, that doesn't sound crazy, you know they'll just find out that I'm the daughter of a homicidal lunatic and a dead scientist, and that I went missing at fifteen!?" She stated, raising her pitch, "I hardly think they'll hire me, besides why on earth would they hire me?"

"Well then insist you'll go public on the whole thing and force them to hire you,"

"And end up in jail? I don't think so,"

"Look, you wanted to monitor them, so get involved. We're not going to figure out what's going on from the outside, you need to get close to them, make sure they're still doing what's right," She still didn't respond, "Tell them about your experience through the anomalies, just don't include the facts about being with me or your mother, they'll want you involved, trust me," He added, softening his voice.

"Fine," She stated, giving up, it was no use arguing with him, he was too stubborn; she just had to hope for the best. "So when do you think an anomaly will open up?"

"I'm betting it won't be long,"

.

The piercing sound of the alarm echoed through the offices, the team quickly running through to the main control room in response. Jess swung around on her chair as they approached, smiling brightly in greeting.

"Where's the anomaly, Jess?" Matt asked the twenty-one year old. Jess was the youngest member of the team but she certainly did an amazing job as field co-ordinator.

She told them all the details and it wasn't long until Connor, Matt and Becker were in the car and driving towards the address of a local school. Abby wasn't coming, she had claimed she had other things to do with the menagerie. Thankfully it was a Saturday, so the school should be empty and no one would be at risk. Little did they know how wrong they were!


	5. Chapter Four: Surrender

"This is it," Jayme whispered to herself after changing into her beige combat trousers and black vest top. She slid a knife down through the holster on her boot and her guns through the one across both thighs before leaving her bedroom. Nick approached her, giving her one last look of support.

"You'll be okay, you can do this," He encouraged, holding her arm gently.

She nodded, giving one last smile before heading to the car. The drive took longer than expected due to an accident on the main road, just her luck. In fact it took a good fifteen minutes longer since she had to take the back roads eventually arriving to the address of a school. She parked the car further up the road to avoid it looking out of the ordinary and ran up the steps to the front door. Her hand gripped the handle ready to pull the door open but it only moved a fraction of a centimetre before stopping, locked. She glanced at the large black car in front of the building; it must be from the ARC, they probably put the building on lock down to avoid any creatures escaping, She ran round to the back of the building and out of sight before shooting through a window low enough to climb through. The gun had a silencer, but it didn't prevent the window from letting out a heart-stopping shatter as the glass fell apart. She scraped the ledge free of glass and crawled through the gap, trying her best to avoid being scratched. The window led into a corridor, so at least she wasn't trapped in a classroom. Guns in her hands, she stalked through the hallway, in search of stairs.

She'd made it to the second floor by the time the doors all unlocked allowing her free roam of the school. After hearing a vague sound of struggle, Jayme ran towards the noise as fast as she could, her footsteps echoing through the empty building. She slowed to a walk once in front of a set of doors. She pointed the guns in front of her, gradually peeking through the door as she slid through slyly. It was the canteen. Slowly, she ambled through the room, cautiously looking around. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest, echoing through into her ears. The skin becoming hot as the blood pumped around her veins. Her ears picked up on every little sound, as she stalked across the ground. A door slammed. She swung around, searching for the location of the thud. The place was hauntingly silent now. All to be heard were the deep breaths she took as she carried on. After seeing two doors to her left, labelled for the toilets, she changed her direction, better to check they were empty first. First toilets were clear. Next to check were the females. She walked into the room, eyeing every aspect. A growl. A blur. Something was in here, something ran past her. She spun around, her guns raised. Nothing in sight. She headed back towards the exit, catching sight of the creature. It was a mammal-like reptile, although she was unsure of the actual species. Teeth snarled; it lunged at her, only missing by a fraction as she darted to the right. She fired the weapon; it only took a couple shots until it lay on the floor, taking its final breaths.

"Close one," She whispered to herself.

She wandered over to the dying creature and shot a bullet straight through its head, killing it instantly. It hadn't done anything to deserve suffering; it was in a time it didn't understand. After standing up, she eyed the doors which presumably led to the kitchen, she could hear movement coming from inside, there was a good chance it held more creatures. Only one way to find out, she thought to herself.

.

.

.

Becker and Matt slid to the floor as a wave gas-filled smoke flooded the room. Becker gripped his leg tightly as he fought to remain conscious; Matt on the other hand tried his best to see through the smoulder. As it cleared, Matt could make out Connor and two boys, trust Connor to pull off something like this. After talking to Jess through the ear pieces and standing Becker up who seemed to gain a little bit more strength after the fumes had gone, they wandered towards the anomaly. Before either of the three could do anything, the kitchen doors swung open revealing a brunette woman, pistols in both hands. Connor and Matt raised the EMD's up in the air, as Becker leaned against the counter for support. The two young boys moved slowly out of the way, standing next to the wall on the other side.

"Put your weapons down?" Matt demanded.

She did as he asked, placing the guns on the floor; then raising her hands in the air in surrender.

"Where did you come from?" Connor asked.

"Through the anomaly," She stated, remembering what her dad had told her to do, "I'd left to find out what time period I'd arrived onto when I heard a struggle back in here," She tried her best to come up with a valid story since they were already with the anomaly before her, she just hoped it was convincing enough.

"Wait, you were in the anomaly?" Connor asked, shocked.

"Who are you?" Matt asked, before she had a chance to respond to Connor.

"Why should I tell you?" She said, standing her ground.

"Because we're the ones with guns pointed at your head, now answer the question,"

She stifled a laugh; this whole thing reminded her of when she met her dad. "Jayme Cutter," She answered. She eyed the both of them, wondering whether any recognition flickered across their faces. It seemed to appear on the younger man with brown hair for a second but it soon faded.

"Cutter?" The injured man asked; his voice scratchy and faint. She glanced over at the man who had spoke; apparently he seemed to recognise the last name.

It took a few moments for Matt to comprehend why Becker was so interested in the name until he remembered hearing about the man who used to work with the ARC, a man named Nick Cutter. "Lots of people have the same last name; it doesn't mean anything," Matt responded, shaking the thoughts out from Becker's mind, "Lock the anomaly, Connor,"

"So, someone you know has the same last name as me?" Jayme asked, as innocently as she could. This whole thing felt like a recreation of when she met him.

"Knew," Connor corrected, eyes flashing to the floor awkwardly.

Matt turned to Connor, "The medics are on their way, I need you to oversee that then get these boys home. We've got people coming out to deal with the mess. I'm going to take her to the ARC, see you there in a bit," Matt said; Jayme noted that he was clearly in charge of the team, just like her dad was. He looked her way, "Come on," He commanded, weapon still pointed at her as he led out of the school.

"Get in," He told her; opening the car door, she did as he said, the faster this was over with, the faster she could get to the ARC and hopefully her dad's plan would come together.

"So what're you going to do with me?" She asked from the passenger seat. She glanced over at him; his eyes were placed firmly on the road.

"It's not up to me," He answered in his Irish accent.

"Matt?" A girl's voice questioned through a speaker somewhere in the car.

"Yes, Jess?"

"Becker's alright and Connor is taking the boys home," She stated, obviously she must have contact with the other men as well.

"Good, is there something else?" He asked, she didn't sound as if she had finished what she was planning on saying.

"Connor mentioned a woman coming through the anomaly?"

"Yeah," He responded quite simply.

"So there is a woman?" Jess questioned.

"Yes, we'll be there soon," Matt replied before making a turn onto a new road.

She could feel the nerves starting to build up in her. What if everything didn't go to plan? The ARC could be completely different to when her dad was there, what if he had no idea how the new ARC would react? What if she couldn't get away from them?

Before she knew it Matt had pulled the car into a small car park outside a huge building, the ARC. He had the gun back out and held it to her as she slid out the car and walked ahead of him, gun pointed straight at her back. She watched as he held his wrist up to the scanner beside a security guard, he wore a kind of bracelet which obviously held a key or data of some sort to gain access. She was taken down a few corridors and stairs before ending up outside a metal door.

"You won't be in here long, just until they're ready to question you," Matt stated, holding the door open for her.

"What so now you're going to hold a girl against her will?" She asked, leaning against the doorframe.

His mind flashed to Emily, he didn't want to have her held in a room like this either, and he saved her from it, he took her to his apartment. Unfortunately there was no way out of this one, he had to hand her in or it would look even more suspicious. "Look, I don't want to, but it's what I have to do. You'll be out soon, it's not like you're being taken prisoner," He told her.

"Fine," She responded, walking into the room. He closed the door behind her. There were no windows, although a light in the ceiling provided her brightness, and a bench stood against the wall for somewhere to sit. From the looks of this place, they didn't arrest many people. She looked closer in the walls, searching for some sort of camera, they had to have one somewhere; they wouldn't leave it blind. Eventually she found it, built into the corner of the wall in the right. This was going to be a long couple hours.


	6. Chapter Five: Interrogation, Realisation

It was another hour until Connor made it back to the ARC. Abby was still upset with him about the menagerie and decided to not talk to him so instead he wandered up to find Matt who was just coming out of Lester's office accompanied by both Lester and Burton. Burton didn't look pleased at all, Lester seemed like his usual self and Matt looked a bit distressed.

"What's going on then?" Connor asked; jogging up the steps.

"We don't know yet," Lester stated, his tone rather matter of fact.

"That's what I'm about to find out," Matt added, before walking away from the group.

Jayme heard the door click open, the heavy metal soon clashing back against the doorframe. She looked up to see the man who she knew as Matt, thanks to the girl through the speaker in the car. He stood opposite her, looking down as she remained seated on the bench.

"Were you telling the truth when you gave us your name and the fact you came through the anomalies?" He asked her.

"Yes, my name is Jayme Cutter and I came through the anomaly," She responded; bored with the questions already. She wasn't really enjoying this plan so far.

"Why were you through the anomaly?"

"I've travelled through a lot of them," She replied, standing up and moving to the side of the room, avoiding his gaze.

"That's not what I asked,"

"But that's the answer you get," She stated; leaning against the wall.

He suppressed a smile, "How old are you?"

"Nineteen, and you?" She replied smiling.

"I'm not here to play chit chat, I'm here for answers," He corrected; a little more harshly.

"And I'm not telling you anymore than what you need to know, got it?" She asked; raising her eyebrows.

"Fine, I'll just look you up on the system," He responded, hoping she'd cave and just do it the easier way.

"Fine," She agreed, walking over to him, "And it's Jayme with a Y by the way, as in J, A, Y, M, E. Have fun," She replied; emphasising a pleasant tone.

Not exactly what he'd hoped for but he was sure Jess could find something out soon enough. Once he'd told her to search the name, and he'd faced her not so happy comment about how he hadn't managed to get the answers himself, he went and informed Lester about what was going on. He still didn't seem happy with the entire situation; it was all just a big inconvenience as far as everyone else was concerned; for Matt though, she was more than that, there was a chance she was the reason for why he and his father were here, and if not, then he wanted to help her get back to her own time, like he wanted to do with Emily as soon as the situation presents itself.

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It had been a few days since Matt had brought back the strange girl from the anomalies. Jess glanced at the screen next to her, it was still searching. She knew it would take a while considering the amount of databases it had to hunt through but that didn't stop Lester and Burton from questioning her every few seconds. Apart from that nothing much had happened in the ARC since then, Abby and Connor still had a bit of tension, Becker was still on medical leave unfortunately, and Matt was standing around impatiently watching the screen flick through data. It had caught Jess by surprise when the screen lit up, a small beeping sound erupting from it. Matt was first up beside her watching as she typed away, uploading all data of a girl called Jayme Cutter up on the main screen. Abby and Connor weren't far behind.

"I assume you've found records?" Lester asked casually; walking up to the screens.

"Just give me a minute," Jess replied, concentrating as she sorted the new information, "Got it," She stated happily.

She manoeuvred the files around, clicking on the first one which showed a birth certificate.

"Well she didn't lie about her age if this is her. She's nineteen years old," Jess commented before clicking the next file.

"Wait, stop," Connor said, a little too loudly, his eyes wide, "Oh my god," He murmured.

It took a couple seconds before the others had found where he was reading from. Abby gasped, moving closer to the screen.

"That's not possible," She muttered.

"She's Cutter's daughter," Connor exclaimed.

"This must be fake; he would have told us, we would've known," Abby stated, raising her voice.

"I'm not so sure about that," Jess stated, averting everyone's eyes to the new file on screen, "There are documents here from a foster home, I think he gave her up,"

"See Abby, it makes sense. It's not like he would tell us about a daughter who wasn't in his life," Connor responded, amazed by what Jess had found.

"Guys there's more," Jess stated.

They looked up at the screens. It was a police report from four years ago; it mentioned a fifteen year old girl called Jayme Cutter who was reported missing.

"Is there a picture?" Matt asked, suddenly more concerned than before, she definitely had an interesting past.

Jess clicked around until bringing up a photo from the missing persons poster. It certainly looked like her; dark brown hair, bright blue eyes, similar skin tone, same nose shape, mouth shape; just a different hair style. Here she had long curly hair whereas now it was styled into a fringe and choppy layers.

"Ok, so we know it's the same girl, that's something at least," Lester stated, "Let's hope she's nothing like her mother," He added; the usual sarcasm hinting his tone. "I really didn't like that woman," He added.

"There's other stuff too, well there's probably more than this but it's all I can find. It's basically just a few files from the foster home, all to do with foster families she's gone with and things. Nothing more of interest though," Jess assured.

"I should probably go talk to her then," Matt said, straightening himself up from where he leant.

"Maybe I should do it," Abby argued, "I did know Cutter after all," She added, looking at Matt, who then looked at Lester.

"Well if you must, go ahead," Lester said, sighing.

The metal door opened once more, this time revealing a blonde girl who she knew as Abby. Her dad had showed her a photo of her when he wanted to know if she was okay. She shifted into the room, watching Jayme who was sat on the floor, head resting against the wall.

"So do I get to leave yet, or do you want to keep me for another week?" She asked the blonde.

"We found some things about you on the system," Abby stated, avoiding her question.

"Figured just as much," She responded, unsurprised by Abby's comment.

"I don't know if you knew your biological parents, but I did. I mean I didn't know they had a daughter but after we looked you up we found it out." She said, awkwardly.

"I didn't know who my parents were," Jayme replied, keeping her head down. Well that was a lie, but at least it was a lie her dad had asked her to keep.

"Well I didn't really know your mother, but I worked with your dad. I'm sorry to say he's dead and we think your mother is too,"

She assumed they would believe he's dead; after all he's been missing for almost two years without any sign. They probably gave up a long time ago.

"Are you alright?" Abby asked her.

"I'm fine; I didn't know them anyway,"

"We also found out you went missing at fifteen, you weren't sighted again. What happened?"

"The anomalies," Jayme stated; it was quite simple really. She wasn't going to go into the details anyway, they didn't need to know; she didn't want them to know.

"You were stuck through the anomalies at fifteen?" Abby asked, incredulously.

She didn't even reply, she didn't think she needed to. Jayme stood up and wandered over to Abby.

"What now? Do I get to leave?" She asked.

"That's not my decision, but since you know about all of this, and the anomalies, I'm not even sure what they'll do," Abby responded, "But it might take a little while to sort out," She added before departing, leaving Jayme alone once again.


	7. Chapter Six: Taking Action

**A/N: Hope you guys like the story so far, let me know what you think**.

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She felt like she was going insane, two weeks alone in this room. They did move her from the first room after her first night in there but the second room was no better. It had a small bathroom, a small bed but once again no windows and a very prison like metal door. She was brought plenty of food and water, but she wasn't allowed out, not yet, she was being held under arrest until they decided on what to do. The decision was put on hold when an anomaly got in the way, she heard the alarm echoing through the building but it wasn't until she was visited again that she found out it was for an anomaly. Now it was a couple days after that and apparently things were ready to be talked about properly. She paced the room waiting for someone to come and get her. Matt had informed her a few hours ago that Lester and Burton wanted to speak to her soon. Now it was just the waiting process, she knew it was happening shortly; it was only a matter of time. Her fingers lingered over the knife hidden in her boot holster, they still didn't realise she had another weapon on her. They didn't need to know, it's not like she would use it on them; it was more for security. It wasn't long until the familiar face of Matt popped around the door, signalling her to follow him, follow him to where she could begin the discussion.

"So, you guys aren't going to kill me are you?" She asked, light-heartedly, although for some reason, deep down, she wondered if they could get away with it if they wanted to.

"We don't kill people," Matt responded; a slightly harsher tone invading his voice.

"Sorry for asking," Jayme muttered.

He led her to an office, of whom she suspected belonged to the boss. A man sat behind the desk, he was slightly aged, maybe around the early 40's, and then there was another man who stood beside him, he looked around the same age, except he sported slightly greying facial hair. Neither looked particularly happy.

"Ah, Miss Cutter, sit down," The man on the chair greeted, motioning to the chair in front.

Matt dismissed himself, the door closing lightly behind her. She started to feel a lot more nervous than she should. She shook it away, looking up at the two men.

"My name is James Lester, this is Philip Burton, we are head of this operation," The man sitting down announced. She didn't respond.

"We are told that you have been travelling through anomalies for the past four years," Burton said; it was more of a statement than a question.

Jayme took a deep breath, dinosaurs she could handle, government officials? Well she wasn't too sure about. "That's correct," She replied, as calmly as possible.

"How much do you know about them?" Burton asked.

"Depends on what you're going to do with me,"

"I would recommend that you co-operate,"

"I'm not too fond of co-operation but I do know a thing or two about negotiation," Jayme stated, she knew what she had to do; she needed to get a job here.

"What do you want to negotiate about?" Lester asked, surprised by her comment.

"Look, we both have things we want, you want information, and I want to remain not locked up. Problem is, if I were to stay here in the present, there would be a lot of difficulties in life, I went missing before I finished school, I have no qualifications, no _valid _experience, how would I get a decent job, and why would I want to when there is a place where my experience could come in handy,"

"What are you trying to say exactly?" Lester questioned.

"If you want to know the things I know then I want a job here,"

"Out of the question," Burton responded firmly.

"Fine, but don't expect any co-operation from me," Jayme stated, leaning back against the chair.

"What would we even hire you for?" Lester asked, slightly more interested in the possibility than Burton.

"Field work, I might come in handy, I can defend myself, give some insight on creature behaviour if any of your employees haven't come across it before. I'm not asking for a huge job, just... a bit of involvement per say."

"We only employ military for field work," Burton stated.

"I'm a missing person, if I died who would know? There's no explanation you would have to give, no family to speak to. I haven't had friends or family since I was fifteen, even then the family I had weren't blood related, they were foster parents, and I spent a lot of the time in the foster home. No one would notice; no one even cares anymore. I don't blame them; I wasn't exactly a lovely child. I assume the military guys are so you can just say they died in action, I'm sure you've lost civilians who've worked for you before?" She went on.

"It's not just about explanations; the military are able to handle these situations much better both physically and emotionally," Burton announced.

"But you still have civilians working in the field, now don't you?"

"Two of them, but that was under special circumstances and technicalities," Lester stated.

"I would call this a pretty special circumstance, and besides, you're not going to get anything out of me any other way. So if you really want me, then you have to give me what I want. It's not exactly unreasonable,"

"It's your call, Burton," Lester said; giving Jayme the impression that he wasn't totally against the idea himself.

"Look, my father worked here, don't you think I should at least get to be involved in a small part of his life; I never got to know him after all?" Jayme said innocently; softening her voice.

"Fine, you can do field work, but I want you to tell our anomaly researcher who is based here everything you know," Burton stated; clearly not impressed with the whole decision. If she had useful information though then he could use it to help him. She could be the key to everything.

"If you do anything to endanger the people who work here or if you try to escape, don't expect it to be dealt with lightly, and don't expect another negotiation," Lester warned her.

She nodded before Burton walked out the office; it was pretty obvious he wasn't impressed with her; Lester on the other hand called for Matt to inform her of the works around here. Once they were out of the office, he turned to face her.

"What exactly did you say to them? I didn't get the sense that they were planning on hiring you, especially in the field," He questioned.

"I have things they want," Jayme stated, simply.

"Alright, I'll pass you onto Becker, he's head of security, he'll sort you out with a black-box, ear piece and see what you're like with weapons, we don't want you putting us in danger out there,"

"Fine by me," She responded. Relief finally flooded her, it was over, she was on the inside, and things might just work according to plan. Especially on the whole part where she could easily monitor them and find out what they're actually doing here, if they have an anomaly researcher, they could get in a little way over their head, and she was going to make sure that won't happen.

She recognised Becker once they were introduced as the man who was injured, the day she was taken in by Matt. He looked healthier now, clearly he had healed since the whole incident, which reminded her; she didn't actually know what had happened to him that day. He didn't portray much emotion on his face, his eyes were weary, but he neither smiled nor frowned. He walked beside her as she followed his lead to the armoury, apparently guns were his thing.

"So, you have an interesting history?" He questioned, breaking the silence between them.

"It's not that interesting," Jayme responded.

"Ok then," He replied, failing in his attempt to get rid of the silence.

"You were wounded," She stated randomly, after a couple minutes of stillness, "What happened?" She asked, clarifying to what she was getting at.

"Therocephalian," He replied, "Just a scratch though,"

"Yeah, when you were practically dying on the floor?" She questioned, raising her eyebrows.

"I was not dying," He replied; his pitch rising in denial. It was the first time he had actually looked at her since they began walking, he didn't know what to say, it was strange. She reminded him so much of Helen and Nick but on the other hand she was completely unique. God, he hoped she was nothing like Helen anyway. He didn't need to deal with another Helen that was for sure.

"Ok Mr. Sensitive,"

He shook his head smiling; she was definitely going to be interesting to work with. As soon as they got to the armoury, he headed to the selection of EMD's and guns.

"So, are you any good at aiming?" He asked her, tracing his fingers over the weapons.

"Have you got my guns? Then I'll show you" She stated, crossing her arms.

"Yeah we do, but they're not in here, not sure where they are exactly, Matt put them somewhere." He responded, "So back to my question, how good is your aim, I mean no offence but you don't exactly look like the type,"

She tilted her head at him, "What's that supposed to mean? How does one 'look like the type' anyway?"

"I just meant..." He started, but seeing the expression on her face, he thought it was better to just stop talking, "Nothing," He reassured her.

Jayme wandered forward, sliding the knife from her boot. She traced her fingers across the blade, checking it was still in good condition. Becker watched as the light caught on the blade she was playing with between slender fingers. He stepped back, glancing at the EMD behind him, if she was going to make a move he was prepared to shoot her. He didn't know how she managed to get the knife in here; obviously Matt didn't do a very good job checking her. She sighed at him, seeing his expression, and raised her arm in the air. The knife went cutting through the room, straight towards the target circle on the other side of the wall.

"Cool, bullseye," She stated, smiling at him, her smile dropped when she saw his hand hanging over the EMD behind him, "I'm hardly going to kill you soldier boy," She said, as she sauntered towards the target, pulling the knife out from it.

"How exactly did you get a knife in here?" He asked, returning to his original posture, relaxing again.

"It's my lucky knife; it's got me through a lot. Not so good with bigger weapons like bats and stuff, never used a large gun, pistols are my thing though, what was it you were saying about aim?" She asked.

"Alright I admit it, you've got good aim," He stated, smiling, hands in mock surrender. At least she now knew he could smile.

She let out a small laugh, finally relaxing, it had been a while since she had just laughed, to just forget about what she's here to do, to just feel comfortable, not keeping her guard up all the time. But she couldn't do that for long, soon she was back to being observant and cautious as Becker showed her the EMD collection that were used against the creatures to neutralize them. He had explained how he preferred actual weaponry for safety and not these however the team had to use them from now on which he isn't too happy about especially when it gets dangerous.

"So, are you always this quiet?" Becker questioned as they wandered back to the control room. She hadn't really spoken much after the fiasco with her need to prove a point about her aim.

"I have nothing to say," Jayme murmured.

"It's surprising, I would've thought you'd want to know more about your parents," Becker said, stating his opinion.

"I do, but not right now," She responded, "So you knew them?"

"I knew your father, you remind me a bit of him actually, but you probably don't want to know my opinion of your mother,"

"Is that a fact?"

"Yeah, basically I could list the reasons why I didn't like her, but we don't have all day," He looked across at her, she didn't reply. "I didn't mean-"

She cut him off, "Its fine," There was really no need for her to listen to his apologies, if he didn't like her mother then he didn't like her. For some reason she couldn't deny that it didn't affect her, she was her mother after all, despite everything.

There wasn't really anything left to do that day, there were no anomaly alerts. She wasn't going to talk to Connor yet, the guy who used to work with her dad and the anomaly researcher that Burton mentioned; she didn't feel like it. All she really did was sign a few papers about the work she would be doing, and was introduced to the rest of the team, finally learning who Jess was; the girl who had spoke through the speaker in the car. Finally, after another lecture from Matt about making sure she followed through with her agreement to come back the next day, she was allowed to go home.


	8. Chapter Seven: Twist of Fate

**A/N: Part of this chapter and the next two chapters are based on episode six of season four. I have used some of the dialogue and plot from it but I am not trying to steal it or make it my own, it completely belongs to Primeval. Thanks for reading.**

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Nick shot up from the sofa as the apartment door clicked open. He had spent two full weeks without any word from Jayme, and the truth was he was completely worried about her. Relief took over once he saw her familiar face slide through the door. She looked exhausted. He rushed over to the door, closing it behind her.

"Are you ok? Where have you been?" He questioned; anxious to finally have some answers.

"In the ARC," She replied, glancing up at him.

"They kept you for two weeks?" Nick asked, incredulously.

"They had other things to deal with; it took a while for them to get sorted," Jayme stated, yawning.

"So, did it work?"

"Yeah, I'm in. It took a little persuading but I've got a job, field work actually. Well on the one condition that I co-operate with the research on anomalies,"

"Good, I want you to keep me updated on everything,"

"Well yeah, I mean it's not like we won't see each other every day," She responded, slightly concerned with his reply.

"Well not every day, I've been searching for some small apartments for you, still around this area, not far from the ARC. If you're going to be working there, you need a place of your own, keep up your alibi. You never know when it might come in handy,"

"Ok, fine. Found any?"

"Yeah, one seems to have potential, its good money wise. Just, I need you to promise me one thing,"

"Yeah, sure, anything,"

"Er, don't get involved with anyone on the team, romantically involved I mean. I know you're nineteen, but all the men there are about ten years older than you, and you know it'll be easier for you if you don't have emotions in the way, especially if you want to monitor them with a clear head," That was definitely one of the more awkward things he had to say to her. He didn't want her with anyone there though, he already knew the risks of working there, it's even worse when the lives of people you care greatly for are at stake. For example Claudia, Stephen, and he still couldn't deny that losing Helen didn't affect him slightly. He couldn't let her feel that pain. Although the thing about age definitely strayed on his mind, they were all quite a bit older than her, and he preferred, if she were to date someone, that it'd be more around her own age. And of course they had to be good enough for her, and unfortunately for them, they had to reach very high standards in his mind.

"Don't worry; I think I can control myself. I promise." She replied, laughing, "So, is parenthood finally getting the better of you?" she asked, smiling.

"Like a disease," He responded.

"I'm going to get showered, then sleep. I need to be up early next morning," She stated, heading to her bedroom.

"You'll get used to it,"

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Jayme wandered into the ARC the next morning, flashing her new data wristband into the security scanner. She felt more refreshed than she had for the past two weeks, finally getting her freedom back. It was her first proper day at the ARC, and she was prepared to get started on her mission. She needed to figure out what exactly was going on. Her thought train was cut off by the blaring alarm that suddenly erupted into life. She broke her pace into a steady jog as she headed towards the main control room; the centre of the alarm. She remembered how she first felt when they showed her this room; widened eyes as she entered, gazing at every inch. Set up in end of the room was a huge collection of various screens and technology where Jess was situated as field co-ordinator. There were a few benches with an assortment of other equipment; although she wasn't exactly sure what it was all used for. She came back to reality as Abby, and Connor came running down the steps behind her, heading over to where Jess was. She recognised Matt approaching them from the office where she was questioned by Lester and Burton yesterday, shouting over to Jess. Gazing up, she noticed a woman with a head of curly brown hair leaving the office and standing near the steps. Jayme wondered who she was, did she work here or is she here for some other reason?

"Searching co-ordinates," Jess announced, as the team equipped themselves with the EMD's.

"This would be when you use the earpiece," Becker stated in a matter-of-fact tone from behind her, slightly startling her.

"Good idea," Jayme responded, fishing it out from her jeans pocket and fixing it in position.

"Here," He passed her his EMD, "And it might also be good if you turned on the black-box," He added, sarcasm hinting his tone.

"I was getting to it," Jayme defended, though she couldn't help smiling as she clicked the on-switch on the small box hooked to her belt, "So, you're not coming?" She wondered.

"Not this time," Becker replied before heading off into a different direction.

"Everyone ready?" Matt asked, as he finished talking to Jess, "Let's go,"

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They parked the cars outside a very nice stately home and Matt set up security guards in certain areas, including one next to the car that the woman was in. Jayme still didn't know who she was, well she'd probably find out later anyway. Matt led the team, Abby, Connor and herself, into the building, EMD's ready.

"Jess we're in the hallway with no signal, what've you got?" Matt asked, glancing at the small anomaly detector in his hand.

"I'm just loading the floor plans now," Jess replied into the ear pieces. This was definitely new to Jayme, it felt so weird.

"Is this a drill?" A man from a small group of people rushing past them asked as the team approached a new room; Matt ignored him, still walking in the same direction.

"Still nothing Jess, do you have a visual?" Matt asked, as they searched another room.

"The anomaly is in the basement, there's an entrance in the north-west corridor," Jess informed.

They approached the door, raising the EMD's in preparation. Connor slowly opened the door and the team stalked down the stairs. Jayme glanced around once they entered the basement; it was completely darkened, apart from the torch lights attached to the weapons.

"Did you hear that?" Connor asked in a low voice, "Sorry, I thought I heard something,"

Jayme could understand him thinking that, the basement had an eerie vibe about it, one that sent chills down her spine. She stood behind Connor and Matt, Abby at her side as they headed further into the room. A chill sent the plastics moving, the air coming from inside another room ahead. Matt entered first, catching sight of the anomaly situated in the middle of the room. Connor instantly placed the briefcase down as he came in, sorting the anomaly locking device out to keep any creatures in their own time, or at least any more creatures.

"No sign of a creature incursion," Abby stated, observing the room.

Connor crouched down, typing in the right orders to lock the anomaly. Within seconds, the anomaly shrank into a fixed ball. So that was what a locked anomaly looked like, Jayme thought.

"Maybe we got here just in time, 'ey?" Connor stated, before being cut off by a heart-stopping growl.

"Maybe not," Matt countered.

They headed out the room, weapons raised in search for the source of the noise. Jayme walked slower than the rest, listening intently for any give away to where the creature was. She manoeuvred her steps to create as little sound as possible while still moving slightly forward. Another growl. It was quieter this time, somewhere on the other side of the plastic.

"It's over there," Jayme informed the team, indicating the location by tilting her head.

"It's stalking us," Matt stated in agreement with Jayme. They stopped moving, glancing around through the plastics. There it was again. Another growl. A shatter of pans erupted from above. The creature snarled quietly.

"So what's going to happen with Emily now?" Connor asked in attempt to change the tension. That must be who the woman was, her name must be Emily. "Huh? She just going to stay at your place?"

"No," Matt responded, without looking at him.

"Easy on the small talk, we'll never get anything done," Connor stated, jokingly, "Must be really strange though, a woman from that time coming to the twenty-first century," So this Emily woman was from a different time, that would explain why she was here, Jayme thought to herself.

"Shut up Connor, I'm trying to listen," Abby hissed.

Another snarl. The plastics shifted. Jayme glimpsed a dark figure. A large dog? It pounced. Connor swung Abby around with his arm for protection, shooting the creature down with the EMD. It hid the floor with a thud and a whimper, lying there unconsciously. She looked down at it, observing its features.

"Male hyaenodon," Jayme informed them, as she glanced at its body, "Fast and vicious, not related to dogs or hyenas, although they do look a lot like them. Share a common ancestor I suppose,"

"In other words not friendly," Connor stated, recovering from the shock.

"Pretty much, but you're lucky, he's smaller than your average hyaenodon."

"What a relief," Matt interrupted sarcastically, "What era are they from?"

"Late Eocene to early Miocene; can't tell for certain. Do you think there's more?"

"Maybe, we're not going to risk them getting loose though, keep searching," Matt ordered.

They split up in different directions, finishing the search of the basement. Connor wandered off into another room, from the looks of things, it was the wine cellar. He hated how silent it was, he could almost feel like he was being watched, maybe he was. He carried on into the room.

"Hello? Who's there?"

Connor looked up in search for the location of the female's faint voice that had just spoke. Stopping what he was doing, he headed back out, leaving the room unsearched. Leaving the small box underneath the shelves unnoticed, the small box containing three little hyaenodon pups. The female adult remained prowling in the dark, also unnoticed. Connor shifted through the plastics, hesitating when he saw a figure approaching from the other side.

"Identify yourself," He commanded. The sheets of plastic were pulled back as woman strode through. There was something familiar about her. Connor raised the EMD torch up the figure, stopping at her face, blinding her in the light. He definitely recognised her now, now he knew who she was. Jenny Lewis.


	9. Chapter Eight: Overload

"Jenny?"

"Connor?" The woman questioned, looking more confused than before.

"Jenny," It was Abby's voice this time, as she wandered up to Connor's side.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no; this can't be happening," She murmured, stepping back in shock. Matt and Jayme followed the commotion, finding themselves next to Abby and Connor who were facing a woman.

"What are you doing here?" Connor asked, clearly as baffled as everyone else.

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here?" She laughed nervously, "This is a joke right?" She questioned, the four team members remained wide eyed. "But how did you know I was getting married?"

"Married?" Abby asked, surprised. Clearly Connor and Abby knew this woman, Jayme noted.

"You're here and... Oh my god, there's an anomaly," She gasped. So this woman also knew about anomalies, who was she? Jayme wondered.

"I'm Matt Anderson," Matt greeted, just as she stormed off in the opposite direction.

The plastic shifted again as she came back, "What am I going to tell him?" She asked, incredulously.

"Who?" Abby questioned.

"Michael, my fiancé," She replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh," Abby murmured, looking down.

"I'm not a demanding bride; really, I'm not," She assured, "Rain I can handle, wrong flowers? Fine. Dinosaurs? I draw the line,"

"Actually they're more like prehistoric dogs this time," Connor corrected, "Kind of cute, dunno, not in a raptor way, I'm just going to shut up,"

"Jenny, the anomaly's locked and we've dealt with the incursion. It's going to be ok," She assured the woman who looked completely overwhelmed by the whole situation.

Why did that name sound so familiar though? Jayme wondered, maybe her dad had mentioned her; after all it would make sense if she knew about the anomalies.

"We really should clear the place for a day or two until we know everything's safe," Matt added. Jenny glared at him, crossing her arms. Abby and Connor simply looked at him. "Or, we could search the property now and keep an eye on things while you get married?" Matt corrected, watching as Jenny nodded her head.

"Great," She responded, "And what the hell, you're all invited to the wedding," She announced.

"Yay!" Connor said, smiling at Abby who was just as happy.

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Abby approached Connor who was stood watching Jenny and Michael walk through the garden, clearly content with each other. They chatted away happily, hand in hand.

"Anything?" Abby asked him.

"Clear," Connor responded, glancing over at her, "She looks different," He added, looking back over at Jenny.

"She's happy," Abby stated.

"Do you think she's told him?"

"Would you?"

"What do we tell Jayme? And more importantly what do we tell Jenny about her?" He asked Abby.

"I don't know,"

Jenny and Michael approached the couple as Jenny introduced them, "Michael, this is Abby and Connor,"

"Hey," Michael greeted, shaking their hands.

"I've been telling Michael about that mad PR firm I used to work for, with you," She announced, emphasising certain words. She had to tell him something, she couldn't very well say she worked for a secret government department specialising in dinosaurs. How would he even handle that? It's not like she planned on her past coming to revisit her, she never really thought she'd see Abby and Connor again, but under all the stress that the situation brought, she was happy to see them.

"Mad's not really the word for it, is it?" Connor stated, smiling, as he played along with Jenny's story. He lowered the weapon to his side, something that caught Michael's uneasy eye.

"Paintballing," Jenny announced, looking at the weapon Connor held.

"Team bonding," Connor added, nervously laughing, "It's the kind of crazy stuff we get up to at the PR firm,"

"Drink?" Jenny asked them, changing the subject. She'd rather not continue this; she didn't want to make Michael suspicious of everything.

"Love to," Abby responded.

"Great, let's go," Jenny said, relieved.

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"Jess, everything's been taken care of, I'm sending security back to you," Matt announced as he and Jayme wandered down the steps to the cars. His expression changed when he found Emily's seat empty. Where was she _now_? How did she get past the guards? He looked at the security guards who were just as surprised as he was, "We need to find her," He ordered.

After one of the security guards announced through the ear pieces to begin the search for Emily, Matt and Jayme ran round the building, in hope to find her before she did something stupid or got away. They spotted a glimpse of brown hair disappearing through a patio door not far from where they were and soon were running up trying to catch up. "Emily," Matt announced, as he charged through the door, security guards on his heel. She seemed to be creating a rather complicated scene in front of Jenny and her fiancé. Jayme glanced over at Jenny as she followed Matt into the building; she didn't look any less stressed. In fact she looked more frazzled; it was becoming harder for her to keep this all a secret from her fiancé.

"Forgive my confusion, I'm not myself today," Emily apologised, realising the situation she'd caused.

"What was I meant to do?" Emily asked as Jayme and Matt led her into another room away from the happy couple. She was clearly frustrated, after all how could they just abandon her while they sorted out the anomaly, what was the point in her even being there if all she was going to do was sit in a car all day?

"Sometimes it's easy to forget that none of this is normal," Matt whispered to her.

"You left me sitting there," She snapped back, "If I'm stuck in this time, I have to be useful,"

"Sorry," Matt stated, taking in a deep breath. Hopefully that situation was now dealt with and he could find out if Emily had completely damaged the secret keeping Jenny did from her partner.

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"It's been difficult," Jenny said to Connor and Abby, keeping her voice low. She looked over to her fiancé who was stood by the patio door, drinking champagne with a couple close friends. She wanted to tell him, she hated keeping secrets, but what if he freaked out. She couldn't handle that. What if the damage was already done by keeping it from him this long, what if he resented the fact that she hadn't told him for all the time they had known each other? She wasn't sure how he would react to all of it, it wasn't as if it was a small secret, it was huge.

"You should just tell him," Abby stated.

"Do you think so? You know when I met him I just wanted to have a fresh start. After everything that had happened, I just wanted to forget about the anomalies, and Cutter," She admitted.

Abby and Connor exchanged uneasy glances, they had no idea how Jenny would react if she knew Cutter's daughter was only in the other room.

"When I met Michael, I just wanted to move on, not that I wanted to forget you guys," she carried on, missing the communication between the couple, "I won't forget any of you," She assured.

Connor needed to change the subject from this; it was too hard to listen to her desire to move on when a part of Cutter had been invited to the wedding. Instead, he said the first stupid thing to cross his mind. "We should get married here," He announced to Abby who choked on her drink.

"Should we?" She asked, recovering.

Connor had only just realised what he said, he needed to find another way out of this, "Er, theoretically, if we were to, you know, to ever, you know, ever go down the road of complete..."

"I'm going to get some more champagne," Abby interrupted, jumping up from her seat and heading to the ice bucket.

"I just said something bad, didn't I?" He asked Jenny, who wore a mixed expression of sympathy, bewilderment and amusement.

"Connor, a word of advice," She started, moving over to sit next to him, "It's customary to propose to the girl, before you start planning the wedding," She told him, while Abby delved into another glass of champagne at the table.

It wasn't long until Matt, Emily and Jayme returned to the room to join the group. Jenny looked up and smiled at them.

"I'm sorry we haven't been introduced, I'm Jenny," She said, standing up to shake their hands.

"Emily Merchant," Emily replied.

"Jay-"

"Jayme, that's Jayme," Connor interrupted, jumping up from the seat as he pointed to her. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously; he had to do something after all, what if she had said her second name. Although he may have over done it a little.

Jayme shared a confused look at Connor before smiling at an equally startled Jenny as they sat down with the group. Abby glanced at Connor; this wasn't going to be easy. It was hard enough for Jenny to have to get reminded of the anomalies, she didn't need reminded of Cutter as well, especially on the day before her wedding.

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It was getting dark out now, which led Jenny to stand up and wander over to the champagne bottles, picking one up and turning to the group.

"It's about that time," She started, "I shall see you tomorrow," She told her fiancé whilst going over and giving him a light peck on the lips "Don't be late," She said smiling, "Night cap in my room?" She asked the girls, as she bounded off towards the door.

"Oh yes please," Connor replied.

"Girls only," Jenny responded as Abby stood up to join her.

"Sexist," Connor added, jokingly.

"Would you two like to come?" She asked Emily and Jayme.

"She stays with me," Matt announced harshly, as Emily began to stand up.

Jayme wandered over to Jenny and Abby, looking between Matt and Emily. Well that was bizarre.

"She stays with me?" Jenny questioned, "What is this, the eighteen hundreds?"

"Just think it's time we all turned in," Matt replied.

"Gosh he's Mr. Fun isn't here, must be a laugh in the team these days," Jenny stated, sarcastically.

"I'd love to come with you," Emily announced, walking over to Jenny who winked at her fiancé before leaving the room.

"Have fun, we will," Connor called, looking at Matt awkwardly. That incident was certainly interesting, he thought.

"Right," Jenny murmured as she flicked through her wardrobe, "Abby, you're about my future sister-in-law's size. Why don't you try this one?" She stated as she held out a deep blue dress for her.

"And Emily, Jayme, just go for it," She told them, walking over to the bed to sit down.

"So, why exactly was Mr. Fun being so protective of you?" Jenny asked, sipping her champagne.

"Basically, Emily's from the eighteen hundreds, Matt feels it's his responsibility to keep her safe, except he tends to go over the top," Abby told her.

"Oh," Jenny stated, "And what about you, what's your story?" She turned to Jayme.

"I'm from this time, but I have been through the anomalies for a few years," Jayme stated, much to Abby's relief she didn't mention her biological parents.

"Sounds just like Helen," Jenny replied, remembering that she had been on the other side for about eight years. "Excluding the craziness of course," She added.

"Like mother, like daughter, I guess," Jayme stated; laughing nervously, that is until she saw the complete shocked expression on Jenny's face.

"Wait, what?"

"It was just a joke, I didn't mean to offend you, I know she's done some pretty bad things," Jayme assured her.

"No it's not that, it's just if you're Helen's daughter then your father must be Nick?"

"Yeah," Jayme responded, was she missing something here?

"I don't understand, since when did Nick have a daughter?" Jenny questioned, looking at Abby for answers.

"We only found out recently, she grew up with foster parents, it isn't relevant," Abby stated, trying to sort out the situation. She really didn't want to have to go through this but in the end it was inevitable.

"Is there something going on that I don't know about?" Jayme wondered.

"It's nothing, it was a long time ago," Jenny replied.

"What was?"

"Her and Nick had a bit of a thing for each other," Abby answered. 'Thing' was a bit of an understatement for Jenny, truth was she was sure she loved Nick, or at least she used to. After she met Michael, things finally fell back into place in her life, she felt at peace again.

"Did anything happen between the two of you?"

"It could have maybe progressed but he was shot before we had the chance to do anything about it," She stated, "But, you know I've moved on, I'm getting married, I'm happy,"

"Wait, did you say he was shot?" Jayme asked, surprise flooding her voice.

"Yeah," Jenny responded, looking down at her fingers. This was the last thing she wanted, she did not want to have to talk about Nick, not now, not after she'd finally moved on.

"That's not possible," She murmured.

"What do you mean?" Abby questioned, confused. How was that not possible? It's not like she even knew him, how could she seem so surprised?

"Nothing, sorry," Jayme commented. Except it wasn't nothing, if her dad went missing through the anomaly during the explosion in the ARC then why did they believe he was shot. And if he was shot, then why was he alive right now. This wasn't right, it made no sense. She couldn't focus on anything, her head was swimming, and it had nothing to do with the champagne.

"New subject?" Jenny asked the group, glancing back up at the scene.

"Yeah," Abby replied, "So Jen, are you nervous about tomorrow?" She asked, after a few moments of silence.

"Not really, I think it'll go perfectly," She stated, smiling. She couldn't wait to marry Michael, she loved him so much. She was sure tomorrow would go just right. And she could have her old friends there, which made it even more special. She couldn't wait to see what tomorrow would bring.


	10. Chapter Nine: Wedding Disaster

"Me again, Connor we need to talk, call me," Abby spoke into the phone, for the fifth time this morning. She paced the room nervously, phone in hand, waiting for Connor to ring. Where is he? She wondered.

Jenny sat at the dressing table while her future sister-in-law fixed her hair, and began to curl it into a beautiful style. She looked up as Abby walked over to her.

"Okay, now I'm getting worried, it's not like him to ignore me for this long,"

"Don't worry, he's probably just nursing a really massive hangover," Jenny reassured.

"Do you want me to go look for him?" Jayme asked after slipping into her shoes. She'd borrowed a dark red dress from Jenny for the wedding, where as Emily borrowed a midnight blue dress. She had already gone down to find Matt so they could head into the room for the ceremony.

"Er, yeah, you can do that," Abby replied, looking back to Jenny.

Jayme nodded before leaving the room, truth is she was just about ready to leave the room anyway, everything was so awkward between them; the tension was becoming hard to bear. She walked down the stairs, finding Matt and Emily chatting near the ceremony room.

"Have you seen Connor?" She asked them.

"Not since last night," Matt stated, glancing into the room in search of him, "Why?"

"Abby's worried, I said I'd find him,"

"I'll keep an eye out,"

So that was a failure. If Matt hadn't seen him since last night then where was he? She wandered through the huge house, peering into rooms, looking for any sign of him. He couldn't be far. Maybe he'd gone down into the basement to check on the anomaly. She found her way back to the basement and headed down the stairs.

"Connor?" Jayme shouted through the deserted room.

No answer. She kept walking, delving deeper into the space. All she was aware of was the way her heart thudded in her chest, she always hated silent atmospheres. She'd never gotten used to them; it always made her heart beat at a much more rapid pace. She strained her ears, hoping that there would be some indication of life in this basement. She closed in on the door that held the locked anomaly inside, opening it as quietly as she could. But she couldn't see Connor after entering it, she only saw the anomaly. Except that's not how the anomaly looked last time she saw it. The light had un-tightened from the locked ball it was in. The beautiful shards of glass like energy floating around freely in the now opened anomaly. Heart beat quickening, she fell to the ground, hands hovering over the locking device. What did he do to lock it? She couldn't remember, he'd typed things in but it could've been a code or anything. Then she heard something that made her lose her breath. The clicking of claws on the floor. Claws that most likely belonged to a hyaenodon. It was far away thankfully, except for the fact that the stairs were in that same direction. And if it got to the top floor, it would wreak havoc on the wedding scene. Suddenly music bounced to life above her. The orchestra had begun, the wedding had started. She hesitated by the device, should she stay and try to lock it or should she warn the others. She bit her lip, closing her eyes, concentrating. Deep breaths, that's all she needed. Just stay calm. She'd never had to deal with the lives of others before, only herself. It was all new territory that she assumed she could deal with, now she wasn't so sure. Just breathe. She really needed to stop the creature before it killed the wedding party.

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"Everybody run! Everyone's in danger, you've got to believe me!" Connor shouted frantically as he charged into the room of the wedding ceremony. All eyes looking up at him shocked beyond belief. "Run, please, now!" He exclaimed, as everyone started murmuring between each other, unsure of what to make of the scene.

The minor sound of clicking claws appeared as a small hyaenodon puppy strode into the room, causing everyone to _aww_in admiration. People began standing up from their seats, watching the cute little animal make its way down the aisle. That was until a scream echoed into the room, followed by two huge hyaenodon's. The room turned into frenzy as the prehistoric creatures snarled and threatened the crowd. The team spun into action as they grabbed medieval weaponry, used as decorations in the room, to defend against them. Jayme ran into the panic as she caught up with the animals, now realising that there was actually two adult hyaenodons rather than one. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Matt attack the one which endangered a guest at the wedding. It averted its attention on Matt. It lunged for him, teeth snarled. Snapping out of stand-still, Jayme ran over to the scene. She grabbed a nearby chair and raised it at the creature which was now snapping its jaw at Matt who struggled under the weight. Heavily, she brought the chair down onto the hyaenodon, knocking it to onto its side. Splinters of wood shot everywhere as the legs of the chair fell apart with impact.

"Where's Abby and Emily?" He questioned, jumping up from the ground.

"They headed out that way," Jayme stated, pointing to the side door. He rushed off into the direction, searching for the girls. She took one last glance at the creature and joined him; they might need back-up.

The hyaenodon struggled to regain its footing as it rose to its feet again. Slightly dazed, it began to prowl through the rooms, searching for food. Its ears pricked as the calls of its young echoed through the building. It was closing on the sounds, now picking up on distressed noises from the two men who were panicked by the small creature. One of those men being Jenny's fiancé. The hyaenodon approached the men, teeth snarled. They ran down the stairs, only to be stopped by the creature diving in front of them from the top of the staircase. Terrified, they scrambled back up, as the hyaenodon followed, growling at them. In a desperate attempt to get rid of it, Michael wobbled to the top of the stairs, trying to avoid the snapping jaws. His foot lunged out as he kicked it in the face, causing it to fall back down the stairs. It recovered quickly, now irritated. It cornered in on Michael, ready to put an end to his life. Before it had a chance to lunge, the candle stand launched out from the doorway, knocking the hyaenodon to the ground, unconscious. Jenny dropped the object, peering down at the creature.

"Get away from my husband," "Actually we're not married yet," Michael announced, as he stood up from the floor, looking down at the creature.

"Minor technicality," She stated, smiling at her fiancé.

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Matt and Emily wandered back into the room of the wedding ceremony, it was completely trashed. Chairs lay unsettled across the floor, windows were smashed, decorations everywhere.

"Well it wouldn't be a real wedding without a fight," He stated, "How was your wedding?"

Emily didn't respond, instead she wandered away from Matt as Abby, Connor and Jayme came into the room.

"All the creatures are back through, the anomaly has been locked," Abby announced.

"Good work," Matt replied, watching as Emily left the room.

"You ok?" Abby asked.

"Fine," He stated, before wandering off also.

Jenny approached her fiancé, as he stood gazing out the window, still overwhelmed by the entire incident. She took a deep breath before revealing the secrets she was so desperately sick of hiding.

"Okay, I used to work for a secret government agency, we track anomalies which are gateways in time to the past, the future, and sometimes creatures pass through into our world. It's dangerous, fatal in fact. There was a man I was in love with, who was killed," She told him, "Oh yes and there's also a distinct possibility that I could have been someone else in a completely different timeline called Claudia Brown but then the present changed and I became Jennifer Lewis, but that's even too bizarre for me to comprehend. But that's it, the whole truth, what do you think?" She finished, speaking so fast, she wasn't even sure he understood.

"So this other guy, you're over him, right?" He asked, slowly digesting the new information.

She smiled, "Yes, I'm over him,"

"Well that's ok then," He responded, gently holding her head, "We do have one problem though, the registrar is in no condition to marry anyone,"

"I think I might be able to do something about that," She stated, smiling at him.

The couple stood at the front of the room, hand in hand, as Connor proudly held the laptop with a camera image of James Lester.

"With the power vested in me, by special dispensation of the minister, I now have the pleasure of announcing you man and wife," Lester spoke, in a 'roll-your-eyes' manner. "You may now kiss the bride or whatever it is that is customary on these occasions, forgive me I'm a little bit vague on the details,"

"Thank you James," Jenny stated, before embracing her new husband and planting a kiss on his lips.

"It's so lovely," Jess whimpered, on the other side of the computer, a couple tears rolling down her face. Lester sighed, fishing the silk cloth from his suit and handing it to her to dab her eyes.

On the other side, everyone at the wedding ceremony cheered and clapped at the couple sealing the kiss. Jayme still didn't know what to do, maybe she should talk to her dad, ask him why they think he was shot. Or maybe she should ask them why they claim he had been shot, either way she needed answers. She knew her dad wasn't dead, but they didn't, and she was desperate to find out why.

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**A/N: Okay, so I've started school again today after the holidays have been brought to an end, and unfortunately I'll not have as much time to write since I've got exams and school work to study for, plus the fact that I'm actually in school for about seven hours per day. Basically I'll not be able to update every day, or even write every day but I'll try and keep up as best as possible because I really love writing this story. Hope you can all be patient with me, and I'm sorry, but thanks so much for everyone who has read this story, it's great to see the reviews I'm getting and looking at how many people have viewed the chapters. I promise I'll update as often as I can :)**


	11. Chapter Ten: Questions

Jayme arrived back at the ARC alongside Abby and Connor who began putting various equipments away. She wandered into the main control room, her eyes flicking to the hub where the field co-ordinator usually sat. Jess was nowhere in sight but she soon saw Becker coming into the room as Abby and Connor left with EMD's, taking them back to the armoury. Well, she had to ask someone.

"Becker, do you mind if I ask you something?" Jayme wondered as she walked over to the head of security.

"Sure," He replied; glancing at her quickly.

"What happened to my father?" She questioned. She needed to at least attempt to understand the situation.

This caused him to look at her; she was leant against the bench beside him, watching him with bright blue eyes. She looked so confused, he had no idea what had gone on when she was away at the anomaly with Jenny but whatever it was, it sparked something inside of her. Something that made her want to know more about her parents. He didn't know what to say, he assumed she could handle herself, considering she's spent four years in the past, or the future, it didn't matter, they were both dangerous places. But she seemed so fragile at the same time, he didn't know why, maybe it was the eyes. Her face didn't show much emotion, but her eyes, they were something else, they were so clear, they expressed her feelings. He found them so hypnotising. "He was shot, about two years ago," Becker told her, glancing away. He could still remember the way his pale blue eyes just stared into space, no life inside of them. The way people grieved over him, the tears in Jenny's eyes as she gazed at the body of the man she had loved. He hadn't known him for long but he definitely missed that stubborn, impulsive, genius of a man. He always did what was right, no matter the costs or the stupidity involved. He cared for his team, and everyone cared for him. Nick Cutter would always haunt the ARC; he was the first team leader, no one quite managed to replace him, no one ever will.

"Were you there?"

"Yeah, Connor brought him out, he was dead,"

He was dead. Those words echoed through her mind, he was dead. It wasn't possible. How can he be dead if she's been living with him for the past ten months? What was going on? This didn't answer her questions; in fact it left her with more. She changed her mind, she didn't want to be here; she didn't want to be in this time. Living in the past allowed her to hide her own history, hide her emotions. To just travel and learn, but then she met her mother. It felt good at first, having family, starting all over again, and she learned more; she learnt all about how her mother believed there were people responsible for destroying the planet, by using the anomalies for their own selfish reasons. And she wanted to help her, she wanted to help stop what was going to happen, but she didn't want to kill humanity, she didn't want to kill anyone. She couldn't, that's why she left; her mother's obsession scared her. So she left, going back to her usual routine of life, and then she saw her mother's body, everything became even more confusing. She wasn't even sure she was strong enough to handle this. When there were other people around, they were interested in your story, interested in the past that she wanted so bad to forget. And here she was working with the very people she thought were the enemy to protect innocent people from the creatures. And now other people's lives were in her hand. How was that fair? How is any of this fair? Everything became worse when her own father told her the ARC weren't bad people, and she believed him, he seemed to make much more sense than her mother. Now she wasn't so sure, now she didn't understand. The very man she trusted was apparently dead, literally dead, not just missing, but actually dead, gone. Yet he wasn't, so how did it make sense, what happened? How did he survive? "Are you sure he was dead?" She asked him.

"Why do you ask?" Becker questioned, looking back at her, what was she getting at?

"No reason, forget I said anything," She replied, smiling at him. Somehow he was alive, and that was the next thing she would find out. She would ask her dad how he was alive. She had to know, she had to understand at least something in this time.

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"Jayme, what're you doing here?" Nick asked his daughter as she wandered into the flat.

"I need to know what happened when you disappeared, when you left the ARC," She questioned, jumping straight to the point. She didn't sit down, or greet him; she just stood there, watching him, waiting for answers.

"After it blew up?"

"Yes,"

"I heard a shot, ran to check if my team were ok and ran into an anomaly, it closed before I had the chance to get back out," Nick told her, recalling the events that led up to him being lost in the past.

"Wait, you heard a shot?"

"Yeah," Nick replied, watching her curiously, "What's this about?"

"I met a woman named Jenny yesterday, a woman you used to work with," Jayme stated, observing his reaction.

"Jenny Lewis?" He asked in disbelief, he hadn't seen her in so long.

"Yeah, she told me you were shot, Abby said the same thing, and so did Becker when I asked him,"

"I wasn't shot," Nick said slowly.

"Well, according to them, that's what happened,"

Nick was frozen with the new information. Why did his old team members say he was shot? They wouldn't lie, neither would Jenny. That brought his mind back to her, Jenny Lewis, the woman who he was pretty sure he fell in love with. At first it was Claudia, his feelings seemed to continue to the new Claudia, to Jenny, when she came along, but then it grew into more, she was an amazing woman. But there was a shot. He'd heard it. It wasn't him though. Realisation struck him, his eyes widening as he looked up at Jayme.

"The clone," He stated. It was the only possible answer. It must have survived the explosion and then been shot. Question is, by whom? Helen? Wouldn't she be able to tell the difference between the clone and her own husband, or was she too far gone to think about it?

"The what?"

"Helen, your mother, used technology from the future to create clones; she used it to make clones of this guy to use as a small army of bodyguards. But she'd also made a clone of me; I don't know why, maybe to confuse me. If I was shot though, it must have been my clone somehow, it's the only plausible reason,"

"So your clone was shot and you think they think it was you?" Jayme questioned, slowly grasping the situation.

"Yeah, I guess," Nick responded, his head shaking in disbelief. He couldn't believe it; his team actually thought he was dead.

"I'll see you later, I need to go," She told him quickly, giving him a reassuring smile before leaving the apartment. The door shut behind her as she leaned against it in the hallway of the building. She didn't know her mother had made a clone of her own father, come to think of it, she realised she didn't know much of what her mother planned on doing. She didn't know that she planned on killing the human race, or cloning her dad, although she did know of the other clones. Looking back over it, she was never a part of the plans her mother had, she just helped her out; she never questioned it, or even understood that her mother could be capable of killing innocent people. Out of everything that had happened, was she really fully aware of the whole situation, did she understand any of it?


	12. Chapter Eleven: Breaking Rules

"Come on, I can do this," She whispered, taking in a deep breath. Her fingers hovered over the small screen placed on the floor of her bedroom. It can't be that hard, she just needed to activate the matrix. Just once. If logic won't work, creativity might, she thought to herself. She began tapping at random buttons, activating different settings on the device. She had no idea what to do, she'd only tried opening the matrix a few times, but she'd always been unsuccessful.

"Come on," She pleaded, frustration sinking in.

She could hear her phone ringing from her bed stand, again. It was probably the ARC, again. She was sure they could handle it, they had been doing just fine before she showed up; they'll have to manage without her. The screen under her fingers began growing brighter, sending out an intense illumination. Her eyes squinted, trying to see through the light, trying to understand what was happening on the screen.

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"Secure the perimeter, you two with me," Becker instructed, indicating two soldiers to follow him, Abby and Connor. "Jess, have you reached Jayme yet?"

"There's still no answer," The field co-ordinator announced through the ear pieces.

"Where's her black-box?"

"It's turned off, I can't find her," Jess stated, as she typed commands through into the computer. "Matt is not going to be happy," She murmured.

"Yeah, that makes two of us," Becker stated as he rushed into the old prison.

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She stood wide-eyed staring at the map in front of her, the matrix. Shimmering lights formed lines which created the complicated diagram. Small spheres marked the anomalies, but she had no idea what it meant, she had no idea how to figure out the timeline. The anomaly detector in her draw sounded again, its small alarm echoing through the room. That's strange, there's already been one anomaly alert, not so long ago. She wandered over to the detector and looked at the screen, the first anomaly was still open, in some old prison, but now there was a new one, at a new location. She glanced back over at the matrix, then again at the detector, if there was two anomalies, she should probably help out a little. She picked the device up, gazing at it, she didn't want to turn it off, but she had to. She watched the light slowly diminish until there was nothing left, no matrix; no map. She would figure it out again, she had to, but right now she had work to do.

.

.

.

"Becker?" Jess called through the ear piece as she searched the location of the new anomaly that the computer was picking up.

"What's up Jess," The head of security asked her, as he stood up from where he crouched next to his former team leader, Danny Quinn, who was currently recovering from an EMD blast. He still couldn't believe that Danny had made it back, he had actually survived. Then Matt accidently shot him, but luckily it was on its lowest setting so there was no damage done.

"There's a new anomaly, someone's going to have to go over there and lock it,"

"What's wrong?" Abby asked him, as she helped a dazed Danny to his feet.

"Jess, I'll be there soon" Becker told the field co-ordinator before turning to Abby, "New anomaly, I'll take a few soldiers, I can handle this is on my own, if there's a sign of incursion, I'll let you know," Becker responded, "And Danny, it's good to see you again," He added, before running off to the cars.

.

.

.

Another ring. She pulled the phone out of her pocket and glanced at the screen. Jess. She took a look around her, the anomaly was still open, she had no way to lock it, but there seemed to be no sign of an incursion yet, she would do a full search after this call. She pressed the answer button.

"I've been trying to get a hold of you for ages!" Jess exclaimed down the phone.

"I didn't hear my phone ringing, sorry," Jayme responded.

"There's an anomaly at a prison, and another one has opened up in a factory, I need you to go over there as back-up. Becker's on his way but he might want an extra hand," She explained.

"Okay, what's the address?" Jayme asked.

She didn't really need to know considering she was already there but she listened to the details as Jess responded to the question, telling her where to go. Becker better get here soon, she thought to herself as she hung up the phone. She found herself wandering around the factory aimlessly by the time Becker and a few soldiers arrived. No creatures had come through since she'd got here, but that didn't mean none had been through before she arrived.

"Lock the anomaly," Becker instructed a couple soldiers who carried the device, "Where have you been?" He diverted his attention to Jayme who walked up to the group.

"At home, why?"

"About ten missed calls, black-box turned off, how Jess finally managed to reach you is unbelievable,"

"I didn't hear my phone ringing, ok? And I didn't even realise my black-box was off," She replied, her pitch rising.

"Turn it on then," Becker demanded, walking past her and to the now locked anomaly.

Jayme found a smile forming its way onto her lips as she clicked the on-switch on the little box attached to her belt. It's not like she actually did forget, she just couldn't have Jess tracking her location at the factory before she had even informed her of the anomaly.

"Any creature incursions?" Becker questioned as Jayme wandered up to the anomaly. "Not that I know of,"

"We should get back then," Becker announced, as he began to turn around and walk away.

Something caught Jayme's eye though, something that stopped her from following him. She crouched down on the concrete floor, her fingers tracing the small object. Something wasn't right.

"Are you coming?" The head of security called from the door of the factory.

"Becker, come here a sec," Jayme said, still not moving from the spot she was crouched on.

"What is it?" Becker muttered, frustration sinking into his voice.

"This," She answered, picking up a small toy car, "What's it doing here?" She questioned, looking up at him.

"It's probably just from some kid a while ago, they do that, enter abandoned buildings and stuff,"

"Jess, is there still security cameras hooked up in the factory?" Jayme asked the field co-ordinator through her ear piece.

"What're you-"

"Shh," Jayme hushed, stopping Becker mid-sentence.

"Don't you-" Becker began; she glared at him, causing him to shut up again. She turned back towards the anomaly as Jess's voice spoke through the ear piece once more.

"There actually are a couple working cameras left, do you want me to pull up the feed?"

"Yeah, I think someone might have gone through the anomaly," Jayme responded, taking in a deep breath.

"Hang on," Jess murmured as she rewound the camera feed that showed the anomaly in clear view, "Oh my god," She whispered to herself.

"Jess, what is it?" Jayme questioned.

"A little boy," Jess whispered; her eyes wide. "A little boy went through the anomaly, oh god,"

"Jess, how old is he?" There was no answer, "Jess, I need you to tell me everything you can,"

"About eight, I don't know," Jess responded, her voice cracking. A child was stuck through the anomaly, she couldn't believe it. He was just a child, he was all alone.

"Jess, what was he wearing, what colour hair? We need as many details as possible,"

"Why?"

"Because I'm going in after him, just tell me what I need to know,"

"We're ordered not to go through the anomalies," Becker stated, causing Jayme to face him.

"No one deserves to be stuck there! I'm going in after him, if you want to help then help, but there is no way in hell I am leaving that child," Jayme snapped, glaring at him, "Jess?"

"He had blonde hair, orange t-shirt, jeans," Jess responded, her voice shaky. Matt was not going to be happy if he found out they were going through the anomaly.

"Thanks Jess, tell Matt and the others, I'll be back as soon as possible," Jayme stated, "Unlock the anomaly," She told the soldier standing by. He glanced at Becker, unsure of what to do.

"Do it," Becker stated, nodding his head at the soldier. He powered up his EMD and held it ready.

"So you're coming?" Jayme questioned, watching the head of security.

"Can't exactly let you go alone, I'm here to protect the team," Becker responded.

The anomaly relaxed from the tight ball, the energy circling back into its original shape. Jayme took a deep breath, she was going back through the anomaly, she had no idea where it went to, and she had no lethal weapons on her, she was definitely nervous.

"Let's go," She murmured, holding the EMD that one of the soldiers gave her.

They walked into the anomaly, their bodies being encased by the light. They were gone. They were in another time, another place. The one main rule of the ARC was broken again.

"Where are we?" Becker questioned, looking at the landscape in front of him.

Jayme walked slowly across the ground, eyes wide. What had happened here? What had happened to this place? Where were they?


	13. Chapter Twelve: Future Troubles

"Jayme?"

"I think this our future," She whispered. There was no life in sight, no humans, no creatures, no plants, nothing. The ground was parched and dusty underneath her feet, crumbled away in some places. Mountains lay in the background, looking just as lifeless as where she stood. The sky was grey, a dark, dull grey that looked almost unnatural. Yet the heat was uncomfortable, she wasn't even sure where it was coming from, there was no sun in sight. The air in her lungs was dry, there was still oxygen, but it felt wrong, uncomfortable.

"We have to go back," Becker told her, gripping her arm softly.

"There's a child out here," Jayme snapped, "We can't leave him, he has a family, he has a life, he's young, he doesn't deserve to die out here,"

"I didn't say he did, but this is dangerous,"

"Then go, but I'm staying,"

"You are impossible,"

"Yeah, well get used to it,"

Becker half smiled, despite his deep down panic of where they were and what was hidden in this place. He knew working with her would be interesting, he didn't think she would be so stubborn though, she was just like Nick, she knew what she wanted and she was determined to get it. And right now, she wanted to rescue the child, it wasn't that he didn't want to either, but they had a rule to not go through the anomalies. After Sarah everything broke down. It was his fault, it was his job to protect the team and he lost everyone. Abby and Connor came back, and so has Danny now, but he still failed. He didn't want to be back through the anomalies, he didn't want to lose another team member; he couldn't. She wouldn't budge though, she was going to go through with it, and he couldn't leave her to fend for herself. She was a member of the team now, she was someone to protect.

"Where are you going?" Becker called, as he found her heading across the dry earth.

"I'm trying to find the boy, keep your voice down," She hissed, "We still don't know for certain if there's any predators here,"

"You don't even know what direction he went in," Becker responded as he jogged over to her. Her hand hit his chest as he came up beside her, he stopped in his tracks.

"There's a disturbance on the ground, it could be a trail," She murmured, her hand still resting against him.

"Could be the wind,"

"I don't feel a wind," She muttered; resuming her observation, following in the same direction.

"I don't like the feeling of this, maybe we should go back," Becker stated. They had been walking for a while now, he had lost track of time.

"I don't know," She murmured, "May-" The small rocks beneath her shifted. Her foot skidded against the dust. She slipped, falling down onto the ground. She felt herself rolling down against the rough earth as she fell to the bottom of the slope. She glanced up at where Becker was stood; she couldn't see clearly, the dust in the air blocked her view. Her hands gripped the rock beside her as she stood up from where she lay. She flinched. Her hand was wet, sticky.

Becker rushed down the hill, trying to steady himself as he made his way to Jayme. He heard a scream, her scream. It shot through him like a bullet; it sent shivers down his spine. The dust stung his eyes causing them to water. He skidded down to the bottom of the slope. Nothing could prepare him for the scene in front. Jayme was stood by the rock, hands shaking; the skin of them covered in blood. She didn't look up when he approached; she just stared down at her hands. He averted his gaze to the thing that made his skin crawl. Behind the rock was a small boy, lying down against the dirt, dead. His skin was bloodied and torn. Whatever had killed the boy was dangerous; whatever killed him tore the skin apart. Its claws must be lethal, or maybe it was the teeth, he definitely didn't want to meet this creature. He moved towards Jayme, resting his hand on her arm.

"Are you alright?" Becker asked her, his voice softer than his usual tone.

"I..." She began; her voice barely above a whisper. She looked up at him, her eyes glistening, "I-"

"We can't save everyone," He stated, interrupting her. He slid his jacket off and covered her hands, rubbing the blood from them.

"He shouldn't have died," She murmured. He was so young, so defenceless. Why did he have to die? Why did she have to be here? Why did she have to protect people? Why couldn't she go back to her normal life, before her mother, before her father, before lives were in her hand? She couldn't protect people, she didn't know how; she didn't want to have that burden.

"Things happen, it wasn't your fault," He reassured, taking the bloodied jacket from her hands and tossing it to the floor, "We need to go though, before the anomaly closes," He added. He turned to walk back up the slope but soon stopped, she wasn't following him. He looked back down at her, "Come on,"

She started to walk up to him before stopping dead in her tracks. Her eyes grew, sheer panic rising in her. It was one of those things, except it looked worse, it looked mutated. It creeped up from the slope, it stood not far from the soldier. There was only a small window of time.

"What is it?" Becker questioned.

"Walk towards me," Jayme instructed. She knew these predators; they hunted through sound, her heart beat, his heart beat, every footstep they took.

Becker turned around, stumbling backwards at the sight of the creature. Jayme grabbed him as he fell back towards her, stopping him from moving anymore, from creating any more sound. The creature altered its stance, observing them, stalking them.

"Don't move," Jayme whispered; slowly taking the EMD from hand and aiming it at the creature as delicately as she could. As soon as she powered it up, it would attack. The sound would drive it crazy. Everything felt like slow motion, her heart froze, her breath deteriorated. She didn't move; she simply stood in standstill, trying to convince herself to turn the weapon on. She had to, if she wanted to survive. Her fingers clicked the buttons, and soon the EMD came to life, its sound echoing through the desolate land. It was a blur. The creature was a blur. The way it moved, it was hard to see. It didn't make a sound, it didn't hesitate. It was faster than lightening, it was the ultimate predator. Heart in mouth, she fired the weapon as quickly as possible, the neutralising bullets bouncing off the dirt. Her body went numb, she felt like she wasn't there, like it was all a dream. The creature fell to the ground in front of her, still breathing. Her brain was screaming; it was like fire shooting through her leg, burning the flesh, stinging, hurting, the pain was indescribable. She collapsed to the earth, she couldn't stand. She sat up against the rock, gripping her leg. The blood soaked through, staining her hands and clothes. The predator had hit her before she had hit it; its claw had torn a deep cut through her thigh.


	14. Chapter Thirteen: Struggles

Becker crouched beside her, his hands checking the wound. He had to stop the bleeding somehow. He reached for the jacket he had used earlier and wrapped it tight around her leg, numbing out the moans of agony. He quickly pulled off his belt and used it to hold the coat firmly in place.

"Come on, we have to go. We don't know how many creatures are out there," He stated, helping her to her feet, EMD in her hand. She screamed in distress, falling into him as her leg gave way.

"Sorry," She murmured, steadying herself.

He held her with his arm as they headed down past the rock towards the cliffs. They could feel a vibration through the floor, shaking the ground. Jayme glanced up; a heavy greyish green cloud erupted over the mountains in the distance.

"What about the anomaly?" She rushed out, nervously.

"We don't have time, the predators would have heard the commotion, and I don't even want to know what that is," Becker responded, looking up at the cloud and quickening his pace towards the steep edge of the mountain close by.

"Where are we going?"

"There's a hole in the cliff, hoping it's a cave,"

"And if it isn't?" She asked, dreading what will happen if they can't get back. She really didn't like the future, it was too dangerous, although she had never been in this version; something must have changed, but what?

"Let's just stick with plan A for now,"

She groaned in agony as she limped towards the hole. The cloud was coming closer, overtaking everything in sight. Becker moved as quickly as possible, taking on the weight of Jayme as he went. They were almost there. The cloud was drawing near; she could taste the dust against her lips. He crouched outside the hole, allowing Jayme to pull herself in first; he soon followed, hiding into the cliff as the cloud charged past them. Becker pulled himself up onto his feet as he entered the heart of the cave. It wasn't very big, but luckily there seemed to be no creatures in sight. Let's keep it that way, he thought to himself.

"You were right about the cave," She murmured, as she leant her head against the wall, catching her breath.

"Yeah, I just don't know what to do now," Becker stated, "We can't go back out there, not with your leg like this,"

"We can't exactly stay here," Jayme pointed out, looking around.

"Look, I've got water, and a couple supplies in the bag," He responded, dropping the back-pack onto the floor.

"It won't last us that long,"

"It'll do,"

"Becker, you _have_ to go,"

"It's my job to protect my team," He responded, turning to face her.

"Look at me! I can't outrun those creatures, and we both know anomalies don't stay open forever,"

"I'm not leaving you, end of discussion," Becker stated, taking the EMD from her hand and turning the power off.

"So what's your plan? Wait for a miracle?" She asked, sarcasm hinting her voice.

"We wait until your leg's a bit better to walk on,"

"Then what, walk through thin air? The anomaly will have closed Becker,"

"So you want me to leave you?" He asked, incredulously.

"Better than both of us dying,"

"You're not going to die,"

"Maybe not, but I can't go anywhere yet, and the anomaly won't wait around,"

"Don't you get it? It's my job to protect my team and I don't care how long you've worked here, I am not failing again!" He yelled, throwing the EMD to the ground harshly.

"Again?" She questioned, unfazed by his shouting.

He ran his hands through his hair, pacing back and forth through the small space. He clearly didn't want to talk about; if he did he would have said something in response.

"What do you mean by again?" She repeated.

"Nothing!" Becker stated, turning away from her.

"Becker?"

"Just let me do my job, okay?"

"Yeah," Jayme responded. Clearly she hit a nerve before, she didn't know what possessed him to think that team casualties were his fault but obviously he blamed himself. She'd find out the whole story sooner or later. Right now all she could do was wait.

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**A/N: Just a short one.**


	15. Chapter Fourteen: Connections

"_Look, I don't know if I can trust you but it looks like I have no choice," The old team leader began, his green eyes focused upon Matt, "Philip Burton is connected to Helen Cutter, they knew each other. He lied to me about it, something to do with anomaly research. Let the others know that Burton is not to be trusted. And something else I found out, a name repeated on a set of documents and journals Helen had on her, Jayme Cutter. Lester mentioned earlier that Nick and Helen's long lost daughter is working with you, not so long lost from what I've gathered, she knew Helen personally. I don't know how, but they did. I don't know what she's told you, but if she knew Helen, I wouldn't trust her, especially if she lied about it, don't be deceived by her. Trust me when I tell you that you don't want another Helen Cutter," _

"_You go after your brother, I'll take care of this," Matt stated, nodding his head at the man._

"_Danny," Emily began as Quinn moved towards the anomaly, "Good luck," She told him, passing him his stick in the process. _

"_Say goodbye to Abby and Connor for me, will you?" Matt nodded at Danny, "Any Oy', I've not forgotten you shot me, I'll get you back for that one day," Danny added, smiling at Emily and Matt. He approached the anomaly, taking one last glance at the two before heading into it, following his brother through into the Pliocene._

Matt couldn't get the conversation with the old team leader out of his head. He knew Burton was up to something, something to do with the anomalies. New Dawn. He didn't know exactly what it was, but he had the basic idea, thanks to Abby retrieving the hard drive from Connor's computer. He just needed Connor to understand that Burton wasn't to be trusted, but how could he convince him when Connor was in awe of the man. He wouldn't listen, he wouldn't even listen to Abby; he believed Burton was a good guy. So how could he change his mind, he needed evidential proof to show him, it was the only way Connor would believe him, he wasn't going to be swayed simply by his and Abby's word on the subject. He felt his phone vibrating in his pocket; he quickly pulled it out, pressing the answer button as he did so.

"Excuse me, Mr. Anderson, we have a person trying to get into the ARC, they claim they know Abby Maitland and Connor Temple," The security guard stated, his voice travelling through the phone line.

"Do they have a name?" Matt questioned, whilst wandering up to Abby who he'd just spotted walking into the main control room.

"He says his name is Nick Cutter,"

"What's up?" Abby asked, watching him suspiciously.

Matt moved his hand over the phone speaker, blocking the noise, "There's a man claiming he's called Nick Cutter, that's the man who used to work here a while back, right?" He asked the blonde.

"Wait, Nick? That's not possible, he's dead, I saw him,"

"Then someone out there is trying to make a statement to you," Matt responded, listing the only possible reason as to why someone would fake that identity.

"But who?"

"Only one way to find out," Matt replied, jogging up the steps and walking down the corridor to the elevator, Abby hot on his heels.

Matt scanned his security band into the scanner and opened the metal door that led outside. He walked out, hearing the security guard arguing with someone with a Scottish accent. Abby jogged up beside him as he marched towards the gates. Matt pushed them open as he wandered onto the scene.

"Abby?" The man asked, astonished.

"Cutter?" Abby questioned in disbelief, "How?" Abby tried to speak, but all words seemed to fail her.

Nick rushed up to her and pulled her into a hug. He was never one for hugs, but he hadn't seen Abby in two years, she was like a daughter to him; or another daughter to him anyway. It felt so good to finally see one of his old team members again.

"You were dead," Was all Abby managed to get out as she pulled out of the hug.

"No, I wasn't," Nick stated.

"I saw-"

"I think it was my clone that was shot; you remember the clone Helen made. I didn't die, I ran into an anomaly in the ARC, it closed before I had the chance to get back," He corrected, waiting for her reaction.

"But Connor talked to you, when you were dying, he would've known if it was a clone," Abby stated, "Right?"

"Maybe not, I mean Connor might have thought I seemed a little different due to the fact that the clone was dying, it's plausible. I wasn't shot though, the clone is the only explanation, they're a lot more human than you think,"

"How did you get back here?" Abby questioned; her heart racing. If it was the clone that had died then where had Cutter been, how did he get back, how was he stuck in the anomalies for so long, for two years?

"I actually got back nine months ago,"

"Where've you been then? Why are you only coming back now? Why did you wait so long?" There were so many questions running through her mind, she couldn't get them all out, yet she needed to know the answers, she needed to know everything.

"I've been back and forth through the anomalies, but I'll explain more about that later. I wasn't going to show up yet, I decided to lie low, but I did know you were ok, I had... Well I had assistance; it's why I'm here. I need to know what happened to her, where is she? Did you do something to her?"

"To who?"

"Jayme, my daughter,"

"You knew about her? Wait, you were in contact with her when she was here?"

"Yeah, I was the reason you came across her, I told her she needed to get a job here, to see what was going on, if the ARC had changed, if we could still trust it,"

"But she said she came through the anomalies, she said she didn't know who her real parents were,"

"I told her to say that, all of it. But she has spent a lot of time through the anomalies, it's how we met, we were in the past somewhere. That's not important right now though, I need to know where she is, she hasn't been in contact with me for three and a half months,"

"You think we did something to her?"

"I don't know, I just, I need to find her,"

"Look, Cutter... Something happened-"

"What? Is she ok?"

"I don't know, her and Becker, they kind of went through an anomaly three and a half months ago, we haven't heard from them since,"

"An anomaly? Where? Why didn't you follow them, rescue them? Why did they go through?"

"It was to the future, Connor has a device that tells us the dates now. We don't go through them though, not anymore, the ARC has a rule about it, after me, Connor and Danny disappeared, and then the thing with Sarah, everything sort of broke down. I mean we decided to anyway, we went through but it was dangerous, there was no sign of them, we couldn't stay long. Jess says that there was footage of a young boy going through, Jayme apparently wanted to rescue him and Becker followed her through for protection. I'm sorry, but I don't where they are now, or if they're even alive,"

"The Sarah thing? What happened?"

"Cutter, she died, she was killed by a future predator when Becker was sending out teams to find me, Connor and Danny,"

"When you all went after Helen?"

"You knew about that?"

"Well I wasn't sure, I mean Jayme told me that Helen was dead, and when we got back to the present I found out that it was you and Connor who went missing, Jayme already knew that three government operatives had gone missing, she didn't know who you were though, not at the time anyway,"

"So she did know Helen then," Matt cut in; Danny had been right all along.

"Yeah, she'd spent a year or so with her,"

"And you knew about this?" Abby asked in disbelief.

"Well yeah, but she left Helen before she died,"

"And it didn't occur to you that maybe Helen had an effect on her, that maybe they shared the same ideas, I mean if they were working together-"

"Jayme is nothing like her mother!" Cutter snapped; stopping Matt mid-sentence.

"In all fairness Cutter, she may have done. How do you know that she isn't continuing the work that her mother had left behind," Abby questioned.

"Because she's not like that, she told me that she wasn't involved with Helen's plans, that the reason she left her about month before she died was because of that, because she didn't like the way Helen thought,"

"How do you know she isn't deceiving you; that she isn't lying to you? Some people are good when it comes to keeping secrets," Matt stated, after all, he had been, for a while anyway.

"She's my daughter, I trust her,"

"And you've known her for how long?" Abby added; her mind was filled with so many things that it felt as if it were going to explode.

"Ten months, but that's not the point!"

"It's exactly the point!" Abby snapped.

"You don't know her well enough to trust her completely, if she's anything like her mother-" Matt began, trying to talk reason into him. If Jayme worked with Helen, and Helen was connected to Philip, then there's a good chance Jayme and him are involved, they must be working together, it would make perfect sense.

"Okay, hang on a minute, who the hell are you to be making accusations like that? You didn't even know my wife in the first place, you barely know Jayme either!"

"I know enough! I've read the file, I know the things Helen did, it could very easily be the case of like mother like daughter,"

"Exactly, you've read a file; you weren't alive to witness it! Yes, Helen was pretty insane, but that doesn't mean that Jayme is, it doesn't give you the right to accuse her of anything!"

"Okay, let's calm down," Abby told the two men as she finally fell out from the heat of the moment, "Cutter, let's go inside, we'll talk about everything,_ calmly_, I'm sure Connor would like to see you anyway, and Matt find Lester,"

As the three of them wandered into the main control room, the alarms for the ADD livened up the room. Matt rushed over to Jess, standing by her shoulder as she narrowed down the location.

"You guys aren't going to believe where it is," She stated, nervously.

"Where?" Matt questioned.

"Here, the anomaly is in the ARC," She responded standing up from her chair and turning around, "Wait..." Jess began, observing the man beside Abby, realisation struck her; she had read all the files from past and current team members after all, "Is that Nick Cutter?"

"Not now, Jess. Where's about in the ARC is the anomaly?"

"You're not going to like it, it's in Connor's lab, the one Burton gave him,"

.

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.

**A/N: Hmm, wonder if Becker and Jayme are alright, what do you think?**


	16. Chapter Fifteen: Painful Truth

Water was brought up to her dry lips, soaking her parched mouth, sending chills down her throat as she drank. It felt so good to feel the taste of it in her, she felt so dehydrated. She coughed slightly as she straightened herself up, leaning against the wall of the underground bunker. Strong hands held her as her legs threatened to collapse again to the floor.

"Feeling any better?" The soldier asked, watching her in the dim light.

"Not too bad," She responded, her voice hoarse.

"Didn't think you were going to make it, you should've drank the last bit of water yourself before we moved,"

"Better I collapse than you, it would have been a lot harder for me to carry you here in time,"

"Yeah, well, next time you're taking the water, you're not scaring me like that again,"

"Let's hope there isn't a next time then," She stated, smiling slightly.

"Jayme, do you seriously think we're going to find another anomaly?"

"Yeah actually, I do, I've been in tougher situations," She responded, confidence sinking in. She knew not to give up, never give up. An anomaly will open up, she was sure of it, it had to; she had to find one. Better yet, she had to find out what happened to the future, humans living underground, no life apart from horribly mutated future predators, something had gone down, and she had a strange feeling that it could be connected to the ARC. For now, they would stay alive until they came across a way back to the present, and she would find a way, somehow.

"Well luckily for us, people have been here, although I don't want to know how they died out, if they died out, but there's still food here so we're fine for now, come on you must be starving,"

"Same goes for you,"

"I had to get you conscious first,"

"I appreciate it,"

The food was heaven, well it was no luxury dinner, but when you've been limited to a scarce amount of food for the past few days it felt incredible to have a decent amount. She and Becker had been living off the remaining bit of food they had found in a previous underground bunker while they travelled to find a new one, they were running out of supplies there, luckily he found this one, and he found it acceptable to indulge a little, just this one time, then they would go back to adequate amounts.

"How you feeling?" She asked him, as she rested her head against the metal stand behind her.

"Doing ok, why?"

"You know, you had this rule about how much water we would drink a day so we wouldn't waste it, but I think you need a little more than what you're taking, considering all the press ups you insist on doing,"

"I do that to keep up my strength, and I'm not going to waste supplies, I came up with that rule for obvious reasons,"

"Becker you're body won't be able to cope with the amount you're giving it, you're being too strict, I know we have to be careful but come on, you need more water,"

"Is there any point in arguing back?"

"No, there really isn't, I know I'm right,"

"You think you're right,"

"I am right, drink some water, don't be a hero,"

"Who said anything about being a hero?"

"It's what you're doing, you're protecting me and doing very little to help yourself,"

"I'm not trying to be a hero!" Becker snapped.

"Yeah, ok Mr. Sensitive, you need start drinking enough water to survive, just do it and drink the stupid water,"

"Fine, I'll drink the _stupid _water,"

"Thank you,"

"And don't call me Mr. Sensitive,"

"Got it, soldier boy," She replied, trying to hide the smile on her lips.

"Enough with the nicknames,"

"Come on Becker, you know deep down you love them,"

"If you say so,"

"We better get some rest anyway, night soldier boy,"

"Yeah, goodnight," He told her, smirking a little as he lay down on the cold, hard floor. It certainly wasn't comfortable sleeping here, he was getting used to it though. In all honesty, that was the thing that scared him, getting used to this kind of life.

.

.

.

"Ok, I have a few questions for you, why is the ARC overrun with bugs, and this one is even better, why is there a dead man walking around in my office?" Lester questioned, raising his voice. Abby, Matt and Connor stood in front of him, just outside Lester's office, inside was Nick. As soon as the team had found the problem in Connor's lab, they had gone to Lester, who hadn't said a single word to Cutter, he was too stunned.

"He doesn't look dead," Matt stated, an amused smile forming on his lips.

"I don't understand this myself," Connor added, first Matt had charged to the lab ignoring him while he gave out orders to everyone else, then he had spotted Cutter, he'd nearly fainted, he was pretty sure he had gone white in the face. The last time he had seen Cutter was when he was dying in his arms, now he was walking around like nothing had happened, Matt and Abby hadn't even explained it to him.

"Well maybe if you weren't too busy letting an army of bugs run loose through the anomaly you decided to make, you would understand!" Abby snapped to the innocent looking Connor.

"Ok, we can argue about this later, and as for Nick Cutter, he claims a clone of him was shot, apparently you guys knew there was a clone of him at the time, I don't even want to know what that's about, but according to Cutter he ran through an anomaly in the ARC and was trapped on the other side," Matt explained quickly, running a hand across his hair, "Now, can we deal with the incursion, I'm thinking if we open the junction to the vents and trap the queen, we have a shot at getting them back through the anomaly,"

"And how did this anomaly open?" Lester questioned, gritting his teeth together.

"Connor thought it would be fun to play with them," Matt responded, glaring at the young man.

"I did not think it would be fun. This is a breakthrough, we're trying to do good here, and now that I know I can open one, we could do so much good, the possibilities are endless," Connor stated.

"Yeah, you're right about the possibilities being endless, the anomalies shouldn't be messed with, you don't understand what you're dealing with," Matt snapped back.

"Has it occurred to you that maybe I do know exactly what I'm doing,"

"Then explain the incursion?"

"Mistakes can happen, but what I'm doing could change life forever,"

"Yeah it could, it could change it very badly!"

"Matt I have already broke up one argument with you involved today, just drop it, we need to figure out what to do, you have a plan, let's do it," Abby stated, moving between the two men.

"Sounds like a good plan to me," A voice sounded behind them.

"Oh great, now I have to deal with you again. I suppose a welcome back is in order," Lester stated, watching Nick as he moved down towards the four of them.

"It's good to see you too, Lester,"

"Yes, well how about you four get to work and preferably deal with the problem before I get an earful from the minister,"

.

.

.

"What are you doing?" Becker questioned from behind her.

"Packing," Jayme responded, while stuffing food cans into his backpack. She turned slightly, settling down onto her knees from her crouched position.

"Well I can see that," He responded, resting onto his knees, "What for?"

"I thought we should maybe have a look up there, see if there's any anomalies about,"

"It's a good plan, but I don't know how much charge we have left on the EMD and I don't even want to know what those clouds are,"

"We can't stay here forever, we have to try, I'll go alone if you want, I'll not go far,"

"You're not going alone,"

"I just think we need to try, try and find a way back," She stated, running her hands through her hair. It felt practically dead, not being washed for months, but she was used to it, it wasn't anything new.

"We will," He told her, brushing the hair out of her face, "Trust me,"

"I know," She whispered. Her skin tingled under his hand, she closed her eyes for a second; they would find an anomaly sooner or later, they had to.

Becker half-smiled; his hand ran down the length of her arm, and slid around her waist. He drew her closer, their faces inches apart. He brushed his lips against hers, their skin touching softly. A chill ran down her spine before she pulled away from him, glancing down at the floor, taking in a deep breath.

"That was stupid, I don't know what came over me," He murmured, moving back from her. Why did he just do that? He can't possibly have feelings for her, it was too bizarre. He just felt like doing it, it must have been the heat of the moment, it didn't mean anything, right?

"Becker..."

"No, it was completely out of line, I don't mix personal with business, I just think it was with this whole situation, I-"

"Becker... Don't worry about it, just forget it. Trust me, I don't do that kind of thing either,"

"Why? If you don't mind me asking,"

"Let's just say it's complicated," She stated, standing up from her position and swinging the bag over her back, "Ready?"

"Er, yeah, let's check it out," He replied, shaking his head, hoping to get rid of all the confusing thoughts spinning around up there.

.

.

.

"What's going on?" Matt asked, watching Connor typing away at the computers. He leaned back against the chair, sighing.

"I checked the computer's history, you know after fixing it up from the gamma ray incident, Philip did it, he tried anyway, the beetles must have chewed through the wiring, but he did do it, he was going to kill us all," Connor stated; staring blankly at the screens of information. "You were right, he isn't the guy I thought he was,"

"Connor, we have to find out what Burton's up to,"

He didn't say a word, he just stood up and left; left the room; left the ARC. He got into his car and drove towards the building where Philip was at. He had some things to find out.

.

.

.

"So, you believe us now?" Matt questioned, as he looked at the young man in front of him. He had already gathered up Emily, Abby, and much to Abby's persistence, Nick came along too, to discuss what they were going to do about Burton. Then Connor came, things might just be starting to look up.

"Yeah, I checked the computer's terminals at New Dawn, Philip did know Helen, I know I didn't want to believe it, but they worked together,"

"You found this out just now?" Abby asked, walking up to him.

"And another thing, one that might be hard for you to hear Cutter, erm, there were mentions of Jayme, apparently they transferred information and technology, I don't know if that was when she was with Helen, but Jayme and Philip, they knew each other, they knew each other way before we knew the both of them,"

"That's not possible, she wouldn't-" Nick began.

"Maybe you don't know her as well as you thought," Connor stated, sincerity in his eyes, he hated having to tell Cutter this, but he had to. He had to tell him what he had found, even if it hurt him.


	17. Chapter Sixteen: Reappearance

Emily, Jess, Abby, Connor and Nick stood around Lester's office waiting for him to process things. Matt had just finished explaining, now he was silent, sitting on the chair in front of Lester's desk.

"So..." Lester began, "During a matter of days, _you_ nearly destroy the ARC, _you_ turn out to be alive, and _you _turn out to be either a visitor from the future, or, in fact I think this is the more likely option, clinically mad," He finished, Connor glanced down ashamedly, Nick didn't even look Lester in the eye, he was too busy trying to get his head around the fact that his daughter had lied to him, and Matt, on the other hand, watched Lester closely.

"The former," Matt stated, a matter-of-fact tone edging his voice, "But then I would say that if I were clinically mad, right?" He smirked slightly.

"Didn't you have security checks for this one?" Lester asked Jess, pointing his finger at the very amused Matt.

"I'm a field co-ordinator; I don't do security, that's... That _was_Becker's job, remember?" Jess questioned, her mind thinking back to the last time she spoke to Becker, just before he entered the anomaly, just before he was stuck on the other side, why didn't she convince him not to go? Why didn't she stop him? She missed him so much.

"And unfortunately I'm betting the machine telling them whether people are from the future or not was out of order," Nick stated.

"I'll do the sarcasm if you don't mind," Lester responded, clearly unimpressed, "So, Philip was in league with Helen, and it turns out that Jayme was in league with the both of them, and the machine he's building is the trigger to the end of the world,"

"In a nutshell," Matt added.

"I'll talk to the minister, see if I can get a DA 25, get it shut down,"

"As daring last minute attempts to save the world go, that's really bureaucratic," Connor stated.

"Do we have an alternative?"

"Yes, I go to New Dawn and shut it down," Matt responded.

"I gave him the security codes, he's got the schematics for the whole building, if he can make it to the machine, he should be able to sabotage it," Connor added.

"And I need you to distract Philip, keep him away from the machine, and buy me some time, ok?" Matt told the young man, turning to face him as he did so.

Connor nodded just as the door behind him opened. The room dropped silent as Philip wandered into the office. Everyone shared a subtle glance between each other. Burton appeared to be quite confused about the situation.

"What an awkward silence, anything I should know?" He questioned, looking at the seven of them.

"No, no, no, no," Lester murmured, trying to calm Philip's suspicion, "Purely routine. Well thank you, dismissed. Come on, those dinosaurs won't chase themselves," He told them, indicating for the group to leave. It had been hard enough explaining to Philip how Cutter was back and it didn't seem like he was too impressed. Giving his history with Helen, they weren't surprised he was wary.

.

.

.

"Do you really think this is any less dangerous?" Becker questioned, as they trailed through the forest of the late cretaceous.

"Yeah, at least we have a better chance of survival here, fresh water, food, atmosphere," Jayme listed, while checking the area for any threats.

"Not to mention the huge dinosaurs which will enjoy ripping us to shreds,"

"Your sarcasm really isn't needed right now Becker. I've been through enough of these to know that this is a lot safer than whatever that future held,"

"So what do we do now?"

"Search for another anomaly,"

"And if we don't find one?"

"You always like to look on the positive side, don't you?" She stated, smiling at him.

"Just being realistic,"

"Well don't, it's not helping,"

"Ok then, how _do_we find an anomaly,"

"Well I don't think there's an official method, you know excluding the detectors back in the present, but I usually use this," She responded, pulling the metal blade out from her boot holster.

"Your lucky knife,"

"Well remembered,"

"It's hard to forget first impressions,"

"Wow, did I leave that much of an impression on you?"

"Good enough one to know to keep an eye on you and your weapons,"

"I'm not going hurt you, Becker," She stated, laughing slightly. Becker loved that laugh, the way it freed him of thoughts, the way that it calmed him, it may be just for a moment, but it was definitely an amazing moment.

"Good to know," He responded, shaking his head. He shouldn't be thinking of her like that, he shouldn't feel the way he felt about her. In a matter of about three months, she managed to show him just how brilliant she was, he hated her for that. Sure, he was allowed to care about her, he cared about all of his team members and friends, but it shouldn't be any more than that, right? He glanced down at the EMD, wondering about the charge, he didn't even think it had any power left, but he wasn't going to risk starting it up, not unless there was danger about. He wasn't planning on wasting even the tiniest bit of power it could still hold. "So, the magnetic field of the anomaly should attract the knife?"

"That's the general idea, worked every time I used it,"

"Let's get searching then,"

.

.

.

Matt pulled the car to a stop as he headed straight into a traffic jam. He slammed his hands against the wheel in frustration, glancing around in order to find a new route.

"Abby, have you found the T-Rex yet?" He asked, through the ear pieces.

"Not just yet,"

"Jess, it's blocked, I don't have time for this, get another route," He added, reaching through to the field co-ordinator.

"The only route that's clear is the one place no one wants to be, the centre of town," Jess told him, while zooming in on the map that appeared on the screens.

"Get me there,"

"Ok, turn around and take a left,"

.

.

.

Jayme crouched down onto the floor, her hands tracing the imprint on the ground; a footprint. It was definitely fresh, and very large. Her eyes blinked as a glint of sunlight flashed into her vision. She glanced down at the ground, the knife by her foot wiggled slightly, the metal being pulled like a magnet.

"Becker, I think there's an anomaly," She stated, her eyes not leaving the knife.

"Like that anomaly?" He asked, pointing at the large light in front of him.

She glanced up, her eyes shooting around towards Becker's location. She soon spotted him, standing by the anomaly. She wandered up to him, noticing something on the ground as she went.

"I think we have a problem," She murmured, glancing at the man.

"What?"

"Wherever that anomaly leads, it looks like a T-Rex may have followed," She answered, gesturing at the footprints that led straight through the ball of energy.

"And if it leads back to the present?" He asked her, already knowing the response.

"Then there's a T-Rex running loose with an all-you-can-eat attitude," She replied, "But hey, look on the bright side, if it's the present, then we'll be back," She stated.

"Let's find out then," He added, wandering through the light, Jayme soon following.

They kept walking, soon feeling a breeze hit them as the terrain beneath them changed to concrete. The scene wasn't quite what they expected. It was a mess. Chairs and glass everywhere, blood scattered over surfaces, the occasional body in sight.

"Come on," She murmured, heading in the direction of the blood trails, her speed changing to a run.

They turned a corner, almost toppling over as they stopped at the sight before them. The T-Rex snapped its jaw at a man stood on top of a car. Matt. He ducked whilst powering up the EMD, aiming directly into the mouth of the dinosaur. Several shots were fired; eventually the T-Rex fell to the floor unconscious. Jayme and Becker wandered up to the car, just as Abby, Emily and Nick ran onto the scene to help.

"Looks like those things really can take down a full grown T-Rex," Becker stated.

Everyone stared at him, finally noticing their entrance. They looked completely shocked to see the two of them standing there. Matt soon found his way onto the ground as Jayme and Becker moved closer to the group.

"What, no welcome back?" Becker questioned, watching the team curiously as they stared at the two of them.


	18. Chapter Seventeen: Betrayal

"Dad?" Jayme exclaimed, as her eyes found him in the group, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm helping my team, protecting them," Nick stated, holding his EMD steady at waist level.

Her eyes flickered to the weapons, then back up at him, holding eye contact with him. "What happened to lying low?" She questioned. Her chest felt like it was on fire, her heart beat echoed through her ears. Something wasn't right, he was acting different.

"Things change,"

"What exactly is going on here?" Becker asked, looking between Jayme and Nick, the man who was supposed to be dead.

"You might want to step away from her," Abby told him.

"What are you talking about Abby?"

"She's not who you think she is," Matt stated; whilst re-powering his EMD back up.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jayme questioned. She could feel her heart beat pacing, what were they talking about?

"We know you're working with Philip," Matt revealed, taking a few steps forward.

"Wait, what?" She responded; almost shouting in surprise. That certainly wasn't what she saw coming.

"You worked with Burton, when you were with Helen, how could you do that? How could you lie to me like that?" Nick responded, raising his voice.

"I don't-"

"What are they talking about Jayme?" Becker asked her, cutting her off mid-sentence.

"Becker, I... I'm not working with Philip; I've never met him before, I swear," She defended, turning to face him, her blue eyes wide.

"Connor found it on Burton's computer data, you transferred information, technology, you and Helen are the reason he's doing what he's doing; you know that future anomaly you guys went through, that's the future you create, that's what you do to this planet!" Matt explained.

That's who it was. That's who the man was. Philip Burton. That's who her mother was in contact with, that's who she transferred information to; she'd done exactly what they claimed she had done. It was all true; she didn't know that it was to end the world though. How could she? She didn't question her mother's motives; she just followed her instructions mindlessly. She was just happy to be with her, she was naive, and now if what they were saying was true...

"And we searched your apartment, we found the same data transfers on a memory stick you keep in a drawer," Nick added.

"Jayme... This is all a misunderstanding, right?" Becker questioned, moving away from her slightly. She looked up at him, she saw worry in those beautiful brown eyes. How could she explain this to him, what was she going to say?

Jayme's mind was muddled, full of questions, questions that lacked answers. "I... Becker, I didn't... I didn't know it was Philip on the other side, I didn't meet him, I didn't talk to him, I just did what my mother told me to do," She stated. She blinked away the tears forming in her eyes, "I was seventeen, I was young and stupid, I didn't know what I was doing; I didn't even think I was doing anything wrong. I didn't do this to destroy the world; I did what I was told to do. You have to believe me, I didn't ask for this to happen,"

"Jayme, I-I want to believe you, but I don't think I do," Becker's words hurt her a lot more than she expected. He didn't believe her, her father didn't believe her, who else could she turn to?

Something else entered her mind, something that didn't add up, "You searched my apartment?" She asked, turning away from Becker and towards her dad. He nodded. "And you only found a memory stick, nothing else?"

"What else would we find?" Matt questioned.

"Nothing, you wouldn't find anything," She murmured, where was the matrix? Where was her journal? She had to go; she had to find out the truth. She backed away slightly testing their reaction, before turning and running. Adrenaline kicking in, her feet took her as fast as they could, speeding their way through the city centre and onto the roads. If she was going to find out where Burton was, there was only one place she knew that would be able to do that. Back to the ARC; this time force might be required.

.

.

.

She wandered through the main control room of the ARC. Already she could hear Jess talking away to the team through the ear piece, her fingers typing furiously at the computer. She made her way down the steps and towards the computer screens. She glanced at the ear piece on the table beside her; well it wouldn't do anyone any harm if she could hear what was going on. She picked it up and hooked it in her ear, the voices of the different team members coming into focus. She took another step forward, Jess spun around on her chair, jumping slightly as Jayme came into her vision.

"What're you doing here?" She asked, stiffening her stance.

"_Jess, who are you talking to?" _Matt's voice flooded into her ear.

"Matt it's me, I just need to borrow the computers," Jayme responded.

"_I can't let you do that," _Matt stated.

"Just walk away, I won't call security," Jess added.

"I really don't want to do this, but it's important that I use those computers, I need to figure out what's going on," Jayme announced, raising her arm from behind her back, pistol in hand.

"If you shoot me you're just proving everyone right," Jess murmured. She clenched her hands into fists, trying to stop the shaking.

"I'm not going to shoot you, unless you leave me no choice. The future is more important than either of us,"

"_You know, you're really starting to sound more like your mother every day! If you hurt Jess, you'll not get out of there alive," _Nick stated.

"I am nothing like my mother!" Jayme snapped. Her eyes began to water, what was happening to her, how did things get so mixed up? "Jess, just step away from the computers, you have to trust me, I know how this looks but I am not trying to destroy the world, I don't want to hurt anybody,"

Jess shifted to the left, moving out the way of the computers. Jayme wandered over and sat down in the chair, placing the gun on the desk beside her. She needed to find out where Burton was; that was all. She typed away at various things, moving in amongst the files of data. Eventually she found what she was looking for. Burton had bought a factory a while back; that must be where it was, where he was, where this whole thing would go down.

"Thanks Jess," She added, passing her the ear piece, before running out of the building and towards the car she had.

"_Jess, what's going on?" _Matt demanded through the ear pieces.

"I couldn't do anything, she had a gun to my head,"Jess stated.

"_What did she want?" _

"I'm not sure, but she searched through Philip's personal files, I think she's going to find him,"

.

.

.

She pressed her ear slowly against the metal door; the sheer chill of it making her shiver. There was no sound; none that she could hear anyway. Her fingers stretched down and clung to the handle below her. In one swift movement she pushed it open, sliding inside, and closed the door behind her. This looked more like the control room. She studied the walls full of screens and diagrams, in the middle of the room stood machines and computers. She recognised instantly the pieces of technology that had come from future; that had come from her. It made her stomach churn, she was responsible for this. She was the reason this was happening, she had followed her mother without ever questioning her, without even thinking. If the world ends today; it was because of her. Then again, she still had a chance to stop it. The soft click of the handle sounded behind her; footsteps echoing into the room.

"What are you doing here?" The man demanded. She knew the voice, she knew his voice. The man she was looking for, Philip Burton.

She turned around to face him. "Looks like you have a bit of a security problem," She stated, keeping her tone light. Her fingers traced across the computers as she walked towards him, eyes locked. "You took the matrix didn't you?"

"It's an interesting piece of technology," He stated, eyes not moving from her.

"So you did take it?"

"Yes,"

"And my journal?"

"Well, you can have that back, it's no use to me,"

He delved into the cabinets beside him and retrieved the book. He wandered over to her and held it out. She took it, no hesitations. She wasn't usually sentimental about things, but when it came to her journal, she just couldn't lose it.

"What are you up to exactly?" She questioned, eyeing him with suspicion.

"Since I really don't think anyone can stop it now, then I see no reason why you shouldn't know. I'm making an anomaly, the first source of energy that will never run out, and won't cost a thing. It will begin at the convergence, using up all the energy of the other anomalies, closing them, and opening this one. It'll be an amazing achievement, something no one else has done, to produce a limitless supply of energy for the world,"

"It won't work,"

"Have faith,"

"I thought you were meant to be intelligent, that won't work, you can't control it, it's going to be dangerous, fatal in fact,"

"And here I was thinking that you wanted this. Didn't you give me the technology I needed, weren't you the one who passed on information to me, do you really think there was any other reason to why I would hire you? We don't hire civilians, what did you think made you so special? I hired you so I get more information, and then you went missing, but I managed without you, Connor was smart enough without you,"

"I don't want _this_, I never wanted _this!_ I didn't know who you were, I didn't realise that it was you who was working in the ARC, I did what my mother told me, I didn't realise..."

"That your mother used you?"

"Yeah; something like that,"

"You just don't understand, do you? This isn't a bad thing,"

"No you don't understand, this will turn out bad in the end,"

"Be that as it may, I have work to do, and since I called security a couple minutes ago, they should be here soon to take you away,"

"You really think you're going to get away with this?"

"I don't see anyone stopping me,"

At that moment the control room door opened, revealing two men dressed in security attire. She moved her free hand to her belt, there was nothing there. She held her breath, the gun, she must have left it at the ARC; how could she be so careless? They moved towards her, tightly wrapping their hands around her arms as they guided her out of the room. She squirmed slightly under the force; if they took her to the stairs then she might have a chance. They headed down to the metal staircase, just like she hoped. A couple minutes later, they were on the last flight of stairs; clearly wherever they were taking her was on the ground floor. A noise sounded in the area at the bottom of the stairs. It almost sounded like some sort of machine, or mechanics. Like the sound of metal rippling. The two men pulled back, keeping her still as they listening intently to the commotion. What was that? Squawking? Some sort of bird? It soon went dead, the area falling back into silence. Now was her chance. She shot her foot out at the first guy's knee. He wobbled, tripping down a couple stairs as he hung onto the banister. She sent her fist straight into the second guy; stunning him enough so that she could break free. She didn't anticipate the swift movement of the first man, taking a grab at her as she began to move down the stairs. Her hands flew out to break her fall. She hit the metal sharply, rolling onto the steps further down. They both came running down the stairs. She didn't have a chance to rise before the second man kicked into her shoulder, his foot sending her down to the bottom of the staircase. Her journal landed beside her, luckily it still looked intact. She breathed hard against the concrete floor, wincing in pain as she moved her hands underneath her in attempt to push up from the floor. She felt another foot crash into her as she was kicked onto her back.

"So what do you think Ferguson?" The first man asked, smirking at her, "All we have to say is that she tried to escape and we were forced to kill her,"

"I don't think she'll be missed," The second man, Ferguson, agreed, pulling his gun from his belt.


	19. Chapter Eighteen: Initialisation

Before he could pull the trigger, they turned their heads sharply in reaction to a noise coming from their right. Footsteps. The two men glanced at each other before stalking around the corner, checking the area was clear. She could hear a faint noise of commotion coming from that direction. Slowly, she rose up from the ground, gripping her bruised shoulder in the process. As she stood up, she pressed the back of her hand to her lip, blood. She rubbed it clean, holding back the stinging sensation that attacked her. She checked herself over, it didn't seem too bad. A few bruises on her arms, her face didn't hurt so there mustn't be anything there; that was lucky. Her shoulder hurt like hell, her right leg was in pain, but other than that she seemed fine. Nothing she hadn't had before. She bent down to pick up the journal then wandered in the same direction, turning around the corner towards another set of stairs. She pressed herself against the wall at the sound of voices. Hiding in the shadows, she moved towards them. She breathed a sigh of relief, Matt and Emily. Then there were the two security guards, and another voice but she couldn't make out whom. Whoever it was, she must have been on the stairs, just out of sight. It wasn't a voice she recognised; all she could tell was that it was female. She strained her ears, listening closely to the conversation.

"If you have everything under control we need to return to the girl," She heard one of the men say.

"What girl?" The woman questioned.

"The girl that broke in, Burton told us to dispose of her, ma'am," The other man told her.

"Who is the girl?"

"We don't know the name, brown hair, blue eyes, about nineteen-twenty years old, I'd say,"

Matt and Emily shared a quick glance; unfortunately it didn't go unnoticed by the woman.

"You two know who it is; don't you, its Cutter's daughter, isn't it?"

"I wouldn't know," Matt stated, his face changing back to the expressionless look it had before.

"You two get back to her, preferably before she escapes," The woman instructed, a bored, sarcastic tone edging her voice.

"Yes, ma'am," One of the men responded.

Jayme shifted back down the wall, hiding in a small gap in the concrete. She held her breath, waiting for them to pass her, hoping for them not to notice her. Her eyes were closed but she could see the shadows moving past her. She released her breath as the footsteps died away. She paused, waiting to hear what happened next, in case it wasn't safe to come out in the open. The woman spoke again.

"Take them out of the building," She ordered. Jayme figured there were more security guards with them than the two who had taken her away. She watched as two more men led Matt and Emily straight past her and towards the shutters that led outside. Jayme slid out from the gap and followed, quietly. Once they had reached the shutters, they stopped. One of the men headed towards the controls to open it.

"_Eight minutes until initiation,"_

She had to act fast; if the anomaly opened in eight minutes then things could get bad; very bad if what Matt had said was true.

"I wouldn't open that if I were you," Matt stated, watching as the man pressed the code into the machine.

Jayme snuck up behind the guard that stood next to Matt and Emily. She grabbed his shoulder, spinning him around to face her. Fist collided into face, she used as much strength as she could, knocking the man unconscious to the ground. The second guard looked round at the commotion, just as the shutters lifted up.

"Jayme?" Matt exclaimed; surprise filling his voice.

There was no time to respond. The squawking she had heard earlier sounded again. Coming closer and closer, there was something outside. From the look Matt and Emily shared, she guessed they knew what was coming. Now, Jayme also knew. Small pterosaurs began crawling under the shutters, flying up into the air as they made their way through. Matt pushed Emily and Jayme ahead, running away from the swarm as they attacked the closest prey they could find; the guards.

"_Seven minutes until initiation," _

"What are you doing here?" Matt questioned, as they slipped away from the swarm.

"I'm trying to fix things; I'm trying to figure out what's going on. But then again, you assume I did all this willingly so why would you believe me?"

"Are you trying to tell me that you didn't do it willingly?"

"Well, no, not exactly. I mean I did what my mother told me to do, I guess technically I did do it willingly, but I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't realise that the technology and information I passed along was for this. I was naive, I'd just found my birth mother after spending two years protecting myself in the past and future worlds, cut me some slack; I'm not the bad guy,"

"She's got a point, I mean if she really was on Philip's side then why would he order her to be disposed of, why is she covered in bruises," Emily told him.

"Ok, let's just say that you aren't _technically_ responsible for this; that you're on our side. Then what now, what was your plan?"

"It wasn't so much of a plan than a recovery mission,"

"Recovery?"

"Philip stole a journal and a piece of technology from the future that showed the anomaly matrix from me,"

"Wait, the anomaly matrix?"

"Long story, don't ask. I wanted to figure it out for myself before I showed anyone. That's not important though, what's important is that I want to help, I'm still on your team, remember?"

"Fine, you can help. Come on," Matt responded, nodding his head at her. He had no time to argue, they had to stop Philip.

The three of them wandered back into where the swarm of pterosaurs were. Emily looked down at the two guards; dead. They glanced around the room, there didn't seem to be any sign of the prehistoric predators. Jayme and Emily jumped slightly as the metal shutters opened, the noise echoing through the large room. Three familiar faces ran up to them; Connor, Abby and her father.

"Hey," Connor murmured as they jogged up to them.

"What is she doing here?" Abby questioned; her tone bitter.

"She's with us," Matt stated.

"Wait, I'm confused, I thought she wasn't with us anymore?" Connor asked, trying to sort the situation out in his head.

"She wasn't, but she is now, it's complicated, but she's on our side,"

"How can we trust her?" Abby muttered; her eyes locked on Jayme.

"You just have to, Abby. We don't have time for this,"

"Good to see you anyway," Connor told Matt, patting him on the shoulder.

"You too,"

"You better not be still lying to us," Nick stated, watching his daughter. She looked down, why did things have to get so mixed up?

"He's already started New Dawn," Emily stated, changing the subject and powering up her EMD in the process.

"Initialisation, there's still time," Connor informed. "Leave the machine to me," Matt nodded in agreement.

"Wait, where's Becker?" Jayme questioned, looking between the five team members in front of her.

"He's out in the field trying to keep the anomalies under control," Connor responded, "Come on,"

The six of them set off, they were ready to finish this.

"You cover Connor and Nick, I'll go after Philip," Matt instructed, glancing at the three girls before heading over in a different direction.

The five of them, Connor, Nick, Abby, Emily and Jayme, approached the metal staircase. Blood dripped from it, oozing out from the dead security guard sprawled across the steps.

"Pterosaurs," Abby murmured.

"_Five minutes until initialisation,"_

"We haven't got much time, come on," Cutter stated.

They pressed on, rushing past the stairs and through the small hallways. The area was eerily silent now; they could no longer hear the pterosaurs. It unnerved the five of them. They turned around a corner; Jayme held her hand up as a noise came into focus. Connor looked around, checking to see where the squawking was coming from. They couldn't see the small predators, but they could definitely hear them.

"Make sure nobody follows me," Connor instructed as he headed to the metal staircase behind them, "Cutter, you coming?"

"Sure," Nick responded, taking one last glance at his daughter before following Connor up the stairs.

Emily gazed around, looking extremely unnerved by the swarm of pterosaurs nearby. Jayme checked her shoulder, rotating it to see if there was any damage to the bone. It didn't feel like it, that was a relief at least.

"Are you alright?" Emily asked, turning her attention to Jayme.

"Yeah, it's nothing," She brushed it off; there was no reason to cause alarm. It was just a few bruises, a few painful bruises.

.

.

.

The small alarm rang off in the control room. Burton looked up from what he was doing and wandered over to April.

"Who's operating the controls?" Philip questioned.

"_30 seconds until shutdown," _

"It's Connor, and someone else," April muttered, while checking over the security cameras showing Connor and another man moving between two computers to shutdown New Dawn.

"Get them down from there," Burton ordered, harshly. He walked over to the cameras, watching the young man, who helped create this, try to stop it. The other man stood beside him, EMD in his hand. Nick Cutter. Philip moved back over to his own controls and began typing away, trying to undo their interference. There, he had done it, he had locked Connor out of the system; all he needed to do now is resume the initiation.

"_Initiation reactivated," _

"Shut it down!" Matt's familiar voice came into the room. Philip heard the click of the EMD being aimed at him.

"You've got it all wrong, Matt," Burton stated, without looking at the team leader.

"You two, move, move," Matt urged, aiming the weapon at the two men in the control room. They left quickly, not wanting to be shot by the man.

"Shut it down now, Philip," He repeated, aiming the EMD back up to the scientist.

"Have you seen outside?"

"Shut it down now,"

"It's chaos; this machine will stop all that,"

"Nature has to be allowed to run its own course. You're about to destroy the world, I've seen the results of your work, is that what you want for your legacy?"

"There are dinosaurs roaming the streets,"

"That's what the ARC's for!"

"The ARC has failed! We don't need containment, we need radical solutions,"

Matt lowered the EMD, watching as Philip explained. He moved towards him, their eyes locked, trying to intimidate him.

"What are you going to do? Kill me?" Philip questioned, not backing down from Matt.

"Yeah, if I have to," He whispered, harshly.

"I don't believe you," Burton responded, his voice quiet but challenging.

Matt forced his fist into Philip's stomach, winding the scientist. He almost fell to the floor, grunting from the impact. He coughed, trying to get breath back into his lungs. He rested his hands against his thighs as he leaned over for air. "Stop him," Burton ordered, as two security guards came into focus.

Matt struggled against them as he shouted for Philip to stop, trying to get him to understand. Philip ignored him, going back to the controls to start up New Dawn. He was going to finish it, he had to.


	20. Chapter Nineteen: The Fall

Abby kicked out at the blue barrel, knocking one of the men to his feet as it tumbled down the metal staircase. Jayme ran down behind another man, sending her foot into his chest. He stumbled slightly. He swung his fist to her face. She ducked; just in time. Her fist flew out. He held his arm out in defence, blocking the punch. She spun around, twisting out of his block. He caught her wrists, hooking his arms around her neck, stopping her from retaliating. She glanced up at Abby who was struggling to get out of the second man's grip. The metal steps creaked above as a woman walked down them. Jayme recognised her; she had seen her at the ARC before she had been trapped in the future. Abby knew who she was, April Leonard, Connor's assistant. She'd taken an immediate dislike to her as soon as they had met; now she knew her gut instinct was right. April walked back up the stairs, seeing that the situation was under control. Abby wasn't going to let her go that easy. She pushed her elbow into the guard's stomach, breaking free from the hold. Abby sent another blow to the man's face, stunning him in the process. Using all of her strength, she flung the man to the floor. His back crashed into the metal, dazing him. She kicked her foot out at his face, knocking him unconscious on the ground. Quickly, she picked up her EMD and shot it at the guard holding Jayme, he instantly released, sliding down onto the floor helplessly. The two of them rushed up the stairs, absentmindedly leaving behind the unconscious Emily who lay underneath the stairs.

"Stop!" Abby ordered, aiming her EMD at April as her and Jayme made it to the top of the stairs.

"_Start-up sequence commencing," _

"Come on April, don't give me an excuse to fire you," She stated, wandering up towards the blonde. Jayme followed, checking around to make sure no more guards were coming.

"You wouldn't dare," April stated in a smug tone.

Abby raised her eyebrow, stepping forward once more. April turned quickly and began to leave, stopping suddenly as a pterosaur dived into view, squawking at the three woman. It flew down at April, snapping its teeth at the woman. She screamed, stumbling slightly as she tried to flap it away. Another one joined it. Abby moved forward, pushing April, Jayme and herself to the ground. April kicked away from them, reaching for Abby's EMD that had been thrown to the floor. She stood up, a self-satisfied grin on her face. She aimed the weapon at both Abby and Jayme, backing away from them slightly. They caught sight of movement ahead. The pterosaurs returned in a swarm, Abby and Jayme curled in a ball in order to protect themselves. The predators charged into April. She stumbled. She tried to bat them away but they kept coming. She kept moving backwards, her foot slipping on the edge of the platform. It all happened in one final stumble, she couldn't move forward, only back. Her body fell from the platform, landing onto the concrete below, the impact killing her instantly.

.

.

.

Philip was sat on the desk chair, watching Matt who was still held in place by the two security guards. He struggled to break free, but it was no use.

"The only problem is, you believe the world will be destroyed when I switch this machine on, and I believe it'll be destroyed if I don't," Burton informed him.

"Philip, you've got to listen to me, I've seen this, you're going to kill everything," Matt stated, trying to get him to understand. He wasn't going to be able to stop Philip himself though; he knew that; now it was up to Connor and Nick.

"_Power to the main turbine disrupted," _

Philip stood up from where he sat. "Only one of us can be right," He responded, moving his finger to press the activation button on the screen.

"Philip, no!" Matt screamed; his entire life had been dedicated to this moment; this is what he came here to do, to stop this from happening. He couldn't fail, he just couldn't. "No! Stop!"

"_Power reactivated," _

"You think I didn't anticipate Connor?" Philip questioned, watching the screens that showed the anomaly data as the machine re-powered to start New Dawn.

.

.

.

The machine powered up again underneath Connor. The thick beam of energy shot through into where the anomaly would be opened. The power sent a gust of force against Connor, making it hard for him to sit on top of the metal.

"Connor?" Abby's voice caught his attention. It was so full of desperation, she was worried about him; she needed him to be safe.

He turned his head, still no words would form; he didn't know what to say. Was there anything to say?

"Connor, get down from there!" Cutter shouted, from the floor where he was keeping watch for the young man. His eyes grew with worry.

The energy behind him activated. He could hear the force opening the anomaly, an anomaly that grew bigger by the second. The glass-like shards of energy encased him, he was too close. He couldn't move; he had no other way out. Abby rushed towards the machine, tears stinging her eyes. He mouthed 'no'. His brown eyes watched Abby, the girl he loved; can they still save the world? Was it too late?

"Connor!" She screamed; her voice cracking.

The force was too great; the energy sucked him in, pulling him back against his will. He felt himself falling, falling into the anomaly behind him, falling away from Abby, his beautiful Abby.

"NO!" Abby cried. The tears attacked her blue eyes, rolling down her cheeks. He was gone. Connor was gone. Her Connor was gone. She screamed for him, he had to come back. She needed him; she couldn't live without him, without him by her side, protecting her, loving her, like he always had done before. Arms wrapped around her before she could run. Nick's strong hands kept her from moving. She fought against him, she had to get Connor; she had to save Connor. They always looked out for each other; she couldn't let him down now.

"Abby!" Cutter's Scottish voice sounded in her ears.

"Let go!" She yelled, "Please let go," She whispered, her voice being disturbed by the crying that overwhelmed her. The tears let loose down her face. She had to find him, she had to find Connor.

"Abby, you have to stay calm, we'll get him back, I promise," Nick told her softly, holding onto the resistant blonde as she desperately tried to follow Connor.

Jayme ran onto the scene, the now-awake Emily following her, they both watched Abby and Cutter, too stunned to speak. It was heartbreaking to see Abby like this, to see her look so vulnerable. The question was where did that anomaly actually lead? Could they even get Connor back?

.

.

.

"Cheer up Matt, everything's fine," Burton told the man, pointing at the screens that monitored the anomaly. "It's working," Philip stepped back admiring his work, he smiled at the screens showing the data. "Isn't it the most beautiful thing you've ever saw in your life?"

Matt couldn't believe it, he'd failed, he'd sacrificed everything, and for what? He didn't stop New Dawn, Philip had won; he had begun the destruction that would soon end this world, forever.

.

.

.

"They've all closed," Jess stated as Lester wandered back into the main control room of the ARC.

"All of them?"

"Every last one," She responded from beside him, staring at the map that no longer showed the outburst of anomalies.

"Is that good, or, is that bad?" Lester questioned, apprehensively. The two of them shared a look; truth was neither of them knew the answer to that question. All they could do now was wait...


	21. Chapter Twenty: Destruction

"We have to go after Connor," Matt stated, still struggling slightly to get out from the guards' grip. "Philip, at least let me go after him!"

"No one is going after Connor until this anomaly is stable," Burton responded. He didn't look at Matt, he just kept watching the screens, typing in various codes and analysing data.

"You can't control this; you have to listen to me!"

"No! You listen to me, this machine has already generated more power than the entire national grid and this is only the beginning,"

"Did you ever even care about him?" Matt asked; disgust in his voice. Philip walked towards him, listening to what he had to say. "That kid worshiped you!" He shouted.

"Of course I cared for him, and if he is dead, then it's your fault, because he wouldn't even have been up there if you hadn't poisoned him against me. Look around you Matt, the world didn't end, you were wrong; this machine is a force for good. My work, Connor's work, I know he would have been proud of what he has achieved,"

"_You_ were wrong," Matt stated, eyeing Philip with hatred, "_You,"_

"Get him out of here," Burton ordered.

The two guards guided Matt out of the room, leaving Philip to his work. He was led to the staircase where one guard walked in front and the other behind, leaving Matt no way to escape easily. As soon as the first man reached the bottom of the stairs, Matt took advantage of the opportunity to get away from them. He threw his knee into the guard, punching him as he keeled over. His hands gripped the fabric of the black shirt as he shoved the guard into the one behind, causing both to stumble to the ground. He sprung out one last punch to knock the second guard unconscious and ran as fast as he could from the scene. He had to get to the machine; he would save Connor; then the future.

"Nick I have to go, I have no choice," Abby's voice came into focus as Matt ran up the stairs.

She struggled against Nick's grip on her arm. "Abby you can't go, you're not thinking straight!"

"I have to save him!" Abby cried, pushing against Cutter in attempt to get through the anomaly.

"Hey!" Matt shouted, stopping the argument between the scientist and the blonde, "I'm going to go," He stated, taking Emily's EMD as he passed her.

"No, no, no, I'm coming with you," Abby argued.

"No, I'm going to go, and I'm going to bring him back, I promise. You're going to stay here because I need all of you here, ok?" Matt stated, holding Abby's shoulder so that she would look at him. Tears still stained her eyes, she really needed Connor back. He stole a quick glance at Emily before running off towards the large anomaly, which was growing bigger by the minute. He jumped off the platform, falling into the ball of energy that led to another time. The future, his future; the future he so desperately wanted to change.

Nick lowered his hands as the four of them stared at the anomaly the Irish man had disappeared into. Emily didn't move; she didn't know what to do. Matt had left, he had gone to save Connor, what did he expect her to do now? What was she meant to do? Just wait?

"I have to go," Abby murmured quickly. She ran out past Nick before he even had a chance to comprehend what had happened, and jumped into the anomaly, following Matt in his search for Connor.

Jayme moved towards Nick and Emily, staring at the anomaly. It was still growing, the shards of glass-like energy expanding; spinning out of control.

"What do we do now?" Emily questioned, unable to take her eyes off the anomaly.

"We have to stop this," Jayme stated.

"It's too late to stop it," Nick responded.

"No, it's not,"

The building creaked as the earth shook beneath them. The three of them steadied themselves, as the earthquake passed. The anomaly was looking even more unstable. The alarms of the building were quickly becoming the background music of the building, whatever Philip was doing, he no longer had control.

"We still have time!" Jayme added as she backed up and ran in the direction of the stairs.

"Jayme, wait," Nick called after her, quickly following, "Stay here, keep guard on the anomaly; do not go through it!" Nick instructed Emily, leaving her with no idea on how she could help.

"Where are you going?" He shouted at his daughter as they made it to the bottom of the staircase.

"Philip can shut it down,"

"Have you seen it, I doubt Burton is still in control of it,"

"Well I have to do something!" She snapped, turning to face him, "This is my fault, I helped this happen, I'm not going to sit back and wait for a miracle. Matt and Abby are gone, they're saving Connor; what else are we meant to do!"

"You're not thinking clearly!"

"Yes, I am! Don't you get it, if the world ends then it's my fault, if Connor dies, I'm responsible; how am I meant to live with that?" She questioned; her eyes watering. "I never wanted this," She whispered, her voice cracking with every word.

"I know," Nick responded, his voice quiet. He stepped towards his daughter and wrapped his arms around her; he wasn't going to let his own daughter suffer. Everything had gone wrong, he hadn't trusted her when he should've done, she wasn't a bad person; he knew that now, even if it was a little too late.

She moved out of the hug, smiling at her father. "We have to try,"

"We will," He stated, returning the smile.

.

.

.

"What is wrong with you, can't you see that I'm actually quite busy here!" Burton snapped as two men brought the struggling Emily into the control room. They had snuck up on her as she guarded the anomaly, since she had no weapon; they were able to take her easily. Luckily, Nick and Jayme had left before they arrived, they might be able to stop this, if Matt, Abby and Connor didn't make it back, they were their only hope.

"They might be dead now because of _you_!" Emily accused. She remained strong and confident; she had to, for Matt.

"Take her away," Burton muttered, his eyes not leaving the screens.

Emily fought against the two men as best as she could, but she couldn't break away from their grip. They took her through a number of corridors before opening a metal door into a small room and throwing her inside. "You have to stop Burton! Listen to me! Let me out of here!" She yelled at the guard, but he didn't say anything, he simply locked the door and walked away from the distraught woman. She kicked against the door, it wouldn't budge, she needed to find a way out of there; she had to help. Emily gazed around the room, there didn't seem to be another exit. She listened carefully to the faint voice in the speakers outside the room, she couldn't hear it very clearly though. It was something about a malfunction, an emergency. The lights flickered around her, something was definitely wrong; the electricity in the building must be affected by the anomaly. The earth beneath her trembled again, this time it didn't stop suddenly, it kept shaking. She stumbled slightly as she tried to steady herself. The metal shelves beside her collapsed, falling against her. She fell to the ground. Her head felt groggy, she couldn't move, she could only slip away into unconsciousness.

"Trace the magnetic field brackets," Burton ordered, as he attempted to stabilise the anomaly. He glanced up to see the man running out of the room, laptop in hand. "What're you doing? Where are you going? I need you!" Burton yelled. The man didn't listen; he kept on running, straight out of the building. The structure was shaking violently now, Philip didn't care, he had to finish the job. He rushed over to the other computer, typing in certain things, he needed to fix this. It was no use, it wasn't going to work. He sat back in a moment of realisation; there was nothing he could do now. Another jolt of the building sent him straight to his feet; he began to run out from the control room, leaving behind his work.

He wandered slowly out of the final exit. The ground still shook from outside, but it didn't matter anymore. Everything he had worked towards meant nothing now, he had failed. The sky above him swirled violently, the clouds had become thick, a motion of colours, blues, greys, greens. It looked unreal, as if it wasn't true. Light flickered through the sky, a bright green light that shot through the clouds, turning on and off like a light switch. It was all out of his control now; he could only wait for the end now. He sat down against the metal staircase outside, waiting for it to all be over, after all, he failed, he did this; his work had brought destruction to the world.


	22. Chapter Twenty-One: The Bad Guy

Jayme held onto the banister of the stairs as a surge of energy pulsed through the air. The earth quivered below them, the anomaly growing larger in every passing moment.

"What was that?" Jayme questioned, as the force of energy passed.

"Electrical surge, took the power out," Nick responded; glancing around the room.

"So not good then?"

"No,"

"We need to get to the control room,"

"We need to leave, that anomaly will not just shut down; it's out of control,"

"I can't-"

"Listen to me, Jayme," He began; he held onto her shoulders so that she would look at him, "You are not a bad person, this is not your fault, no one will blame you for this; I'll make sure of it. But if we don't go, then both of us will die and that won't be helping anyone. We have to leave,"

"Dad, I don't-"

"No, I don't want to hear it. There is nothing left for us to do here; we didn't build this, only Burton knows how to fix it, if we even can fix it. I'm not going to let you die; you haven't done anything wrong,"

"Ok, we'll get out of here. But what about Emily?"

"I'm sure she's found her way out, I'm pretty sure everyone who was in here has,"

"And if she hasn't?"

"She's not stupid, she'll have left after she realised she was in danger. We'll try and contact the ARC once we're out. Come on,"

.

.

.

"Are you ok?" Lester asked the field co-ordinator as he wandered through the main control room of the ARC. The lights had gone out; all of the power in the building was gone. "What happened? Could Philip not afford to pay the electricity bill?"

"Some kind of electrical surge, everything went dead. We're on emergency power. The system is fried; the detector's offline and I can't get through to anyone on comms,"

"Ok, we'll just get someone to fix it,"

"Everyone is out in the field, and I don't think the power out is restricted to the ARC,"

"Philip's infernal machine," Lester stated, just as Jess's phone began ringing, "Now I've seen it all, mobile phone reception when you really need it,"

"It's Becker," She informed, while pressing the answer button on her phone and handing it to Lester.

"_Electricity is out all across the city; it's as if someone set off a huge electromagnetic weapon. What's Matt said?" _Becker's questioned through the phone line.

"We've lost touch with him, get to New Dawn and find out what's going on,"

"_We're on our way,"_

"Good man," Lester stated, after he had hung up the phone and passed it back to Jess. "Good man," He repeated in a murmur.

.

.

.

Matt, Connor and Abby leapt through the anomaly, all while shooting at the mutated future predators that chased them. The predators didn't follow through the ball of energy; instead they stayed on their side of time, in the future. The three team members stared at the growing anomaly, as it gradually overtook the room in size.

"It's expanding too quickly, it's not safe inside, come on," Connor informed. The three of them turned around and headed towards the stairs, making their way to the exit of the building.

.

.

.

"_You'll find a way; our hopes rest on you, the future is in your hands. There's no doubt you will do it, the future is in your hands," _

Helen's words lingered on Philip's mind; everything he had done was for her. He thought it was for the good of the future not the bad. What was Helen really up to? Did she know it would end like this? Of course she knew, but why did she want this?

"Philip," Connor murmured as he saw the man sat on the stairs outside, head in his hands.

Matt, Connor and Abby ran over to him, they needed to stop the anomaly; there was only one man who knew how.

"Philip!" Connor shouted, catching the attention of the scientist.

"Connor, you're alive," Philip stated in disbelief. He stood up to face the young man.

"I need you to help us!" Connor interjected, his words rushing out quickly.

"I know this is what Helen wanted, I just don't understand why! The anomaly has grown so powerful,"

"Give us the codes so we can shut down the system,"

"It's too late, it's too-"

"Stop lying to me, Philip!" Connor shouted, "Otherwise I will drag you through that anomaly myself and show you what you've done!" He calmed down, and softened his voice, "Listen to me, I know your intentions were good, and I know you were trying to help..."

"This is what Helen exploited; this is what she always exploited!" Abby interrupted, "Humanity, your humanity,"

"She didn't exploit my humanity, Abby. She exploited my ego,"

"Give us the codes, we can still fix this!" Connor added, desperation sinking into his voice.

"It's no use; the EM surge would have fried the data. We can't just quit the program!" Philip explained, "Unless..." He began; his mind deep in thought, "There is a way, there is a possibility. Connor, I need you to crash the computer in the turbine room,"

"Do it, and then find Emily. I'm going with Philip," Matt instructed.

"Come on," He whispered to Abby.

The four of them split up, Matt and Philip heading in one direction, Connor and Abby in the other. Connor really hoped this plan of Philip's would work, if it didn't, they were out of options.

.

.

.

"Have you got a phone on you?" Jayme asked, as her and Nick headed onto the concrete outside of the New Dawn building.

"Yeah, here," Nick replied, handing her the phone from his pocket.

They looked around the scene; the sky was a flurry of colours, all twisting together in a dark and heavy cloud. The earth hadn't stopped shaking; the anomaly would destroy the world if they didn't stop it, fast. She searched through the contacts on his phone, she would try Matt first; he was team leader after all. She listened intently to the rings, but they didn't stop, he didn't answer the phone. She needed to try ringing someone else, hoping they would pick up the phone.

"_Nick?" _Becker's voice came through the speaker. Jayme could hear a car in the background; he was driving somewhere. Where? Here?

"No it's me, Jayme. Listen, I-"

"_Jayme? What are you doing with Cutter's phone?"_

"He gave it to me, look I know you don't trust me, but I've spoken with Matt, and Abby, and everyone, circumstances have changed; it's a long story. I need to know if anyone of them has contacted you,"

"_I've spoken to Lester, but he said that he's lost contact with them. Where are you?"_

"Outside New Dawn, things are bad. I don't know if Matt and the others are inside, or where Burton is, I'm going to go check if I can't reach them,"

"_Don't go back inside until I get there, that anomaly's dangerous, it's already sent out the power everywhere," _

"They might need us,"

"_I know my team members, Jayme, they can handle themselves. Please don't go back inside,"_

"How far away are you?"

"_I'll be there soon, promise me you'll wait,"_

"Becker..."

"_Please,"_

She sighed, "I promise,"

The phone line went dead as she hung up. She handed it back to her dad. Why had she listened to Becker when he hadn't listened to her? Why did she have to make a promise to him? Why was she waiting for him?

"What's going on?" Nick questioned.

"Becker wants us to wait for back-up before we go back inside,"

"How long will that be?"

"He said he'll be here soon,"

"Look, you wait out here, I'll go check if they're inside,"

"No, I'm not leaving you,"

"I need someone out here to keep guard, and I don't want you in danger,"

"I can handle myself,"

"That's not the point!"

"Then what is the point?"

"You know what; let's just wait for Becker,"

"Really, that's how much you don't want me to go inside?"

"I didn't listen to you before, I didn't trust you, but I do now, everything's become perfectly clear now, and I'm not going to lose you again,"

"Fine, we'll wait. I hope you know what you're doing," She murmured, gazing at the sky above her, Becker really needed to hurry.

.

.

.

"Ok, how do we do this?" Matt asked as he and Burton ran into the main control room.

"I can shut this machine down, but when I do there won't be much left of this building. You need to leave, Matt," Philip informed him.

"Can't we shut it down then make a run for it?"

"As soon as I shut it down, it'll be like slamming the brakes on an aircraft travelling five hundred miles an hour,"

"Everything in here will be vaporised," Matt murmured, realising what the man was telling him, "Including you, Philip,"

"Matt, I'm the bad guy,"

Matt watched the scientist carefully, he really was going to shut this machine down, and kill himself. He didn't know what to say, this man was the reason for the way his future turned out yet he didn't know how to hate him for what he did. Helen used him; she even used her own daughter. Helen was the reason for this; Philip was just an accomplice, one who didn't know the extent of the plan. Burton held his hand out for Matt who returned the favour and shook it. He gave the scientist a quick nod before leaving the room. If this is what he wanted to do to redeem himself, then he wouldn't stand in the way. He wasn't going to let the anomaly destroy the world.

Matt ran as fast as he could, he had to make it to the turbine room and warn Connor and Abby. Philip was going to destroy the building; he had to get them out in time.

"We need to get out of here!" Matt yelled, as the building around him shook violently.

Abby looked up; worry in her eyes. Connor was nearly finished shutting down the computer, they just needed a couple more seconds.

"Done," Connor stated, finishing the last couple clicks he had to do.

The couple ducked out under the turbine area and onto the corridor where Matt was stood. Connor glanced around frantically, "Where's Philip?" He asked desperately.

"He's not going to make it. He wants to do the right thing,"

"No! No, we-"

"Listen, he locked himself in, there's nothing we can do," Matt informed, gripping Connor's arm. He needed to forget about Philip, there was no saving him now, he wanted to end this, and he _was_ going to end this.

"But we can't just let him-"

"Connor, if this is what he wants. Come on, we're leaving, we have to get out of here, come on," Abby interrupted, pleading him to follow. She pulled on his arm, shaking him out of his trance.

"Come on," Matt instructed before following Abby in their run out of the building.

Connor looked once more at the open corridor, he could go back for Philip, but if he really wanted to do this then he should leave, before they both die. He spun around and ran after Matt and Abby.

"Get clear of the building, I'll find Emily," Matt stated, moving away from the pair and turning the corner.

Abby and Connor sprinted out from the building, their feet soon hitting the concrete outside. They spotted Jayme ahead pacing furiously across the ground, Nick watching with tired eyes. The couple ran up to them, staying clear of the building that was shaking violently behind them. Jayme saw the pair as they approached, she ran over to them.

"Where are Matt and Emily?" She questioned.

"They're coming," Abby responded.

"They better be quick, that structure's not going to hold for long," Nick stated, watching the building as the formation became increasingly unsteady.


	23. Chapter Twenty-Two: I'm Sorry

Moments felt like hours, but eventually they could see Matt and Emily heading towards them. Just in time. They heard a car in the background, soon enough Becker was stepping out and wandering towards the team, eyes locked on the unstable building ahead. They sky above them crackled, the clouds swirling around together violently. The couple reached the group just as the buildings walls began crumbling away. Each crack sending concrete to the floor, dust flying up as the structure came apart. In one quick sweep the building collapsed on itself, the pieces spinning into the air as light struck through the gaps. The anomaly peered through, taking with it the New Dawn building. The energy grew more powerful as the anomaly increased in size. The team held their arms in front of their faces in defence as the energy force blew against them like a huge gust of wind. Yet the anomaly wasn't vanishing, it didn't weaken or shrink, it grew with every passing second.

"The anomaly's too powerful, it doesn't need the machine anymore," Connor stated as he took a couple steps forward, taking in the sight of the gigantic ball of energy, "There's no way we can stop it now,"

"You can't just give up!" Jayme exclaimed, moving towards Connor, "There has to be another way,"

"What else are we supposed to do?"

"I don't know," She murmured, shaking her head.

"Well you helped build it, got a solution to it?" Abby questioned.

"I didn't help build that, I passed on technology, like high-powered computers and stuff, I didn't do this, nor did I want it to happen,"

"Right, and-"

"Leave it alone, Abby, she isn't a part of this," Nick cut in.

"Then what are we meant to do?" Abby asked, facing Cutter.

"We'll figure something out, just like we used to do,"

Matt turned and walked towards Connor, "Your anomaly, the one in your lab, was the prototype for this one, right?"

"Yeah,"

"So essentially it's the same anomaly?"

"It must have re-opened, which is how the predators got into the ARC," Abby added, as she connected the events in her head.

"There's a way to destabilise the anomaly, by merging the prototype with this one!" Connor explained, realising that they still had a chance.

"Come on, we have to get to the ARC, now!" Matt ordered. The team ran to the car, it was obvious they wouldn't all fit in the inside so a couple of people would have to sit in the backend of the vehicle.

"Thanks for waiting," Becker whispered into Jayme's ear before she pulled herself up onto the back of the car, joining Emily as she did so. She sent a small smile down towards him as he stepped into the driver's seat, starting the engine. Soon enough they were heading towards the ARC, at full speed. They needed to get there fast, they didn't know how long it would be before the New Dawn anomaly became even more powerful.

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The team headed into the darkened control room of the ARC. They couldn't see Jess or Lester yet; they had to be somewhere since they had rung Abby earlier telling them the ARC had been infiltrated by future predators. The silence was eerie, nothing was moving, but that didn't mean there was nothing watching them. Most of the people in the room knew how dangerous the predators were, and how skilled they were at staying quiet and hunting their prey. Becker and Matt nodded to each other as they closed in on one of the pillars. They could hear a faint sound from that area, hopefully it wasn't anything dangerous. In one swift movement, they darted around the corner aiming the EMD's. Another EMD shot up at the two men as the light from the weapon hit her face. Jess quickly lowered it at the sight of her team members. She breathed a sigh of relief, turning her attention back to the wounded Lester lying against her. Blood stained his shirt; he had been attacked by one of the predators, slashed by its claw before he had taken it out. Blood smudged Jess's pale face, along with small black stains under her eyes from the tears that fell down her face. Emily and Matt fell to the floor, checking Lester's pulse and the severity of the wound. Nick calmed the panic-stricken field co-ordinator whilst searching for any injuries that she may have gained. Luckily, she didn't seem physically damaged.

"Jess, you're alright now, we're here," Nick assured.

"Abby, keep a look out," Matt ordered the blonde, as he stayed beside his injured boss, "Ok, let's get a drip in him, and seal him in the medical bay, that's all we can do for now, right?" He turned his attention to the young woman, "Jess? Jess, how many were there?"

"Um, four or five, maybe more," She murmured, taking in deep breaths as she did so.

"Ok," He replied before giving Becker an order and turning back to Lester, "James?" He began, interrupted by Connor's quick approach.

"Internal video systems down, everything is," Connor whispered, moving back towards the group.

"Connor?"

"I need to get to my lab; I need to get to that anomaly," Connor added, he knew what he had to do; it was their only hope if they were to stop the anomaly.

"Help me with James," Matt murmured; standing up from his crouched position. Connor nodded his head and shifted towards Lester, gradually helping Matt lift him up. He tried to ignore the man's groans of pain yet they echoed in his mind, he was in agony, what if they couldn't save him? "Look after Jess," Matt told Abby and Emily as the two men supported Lester whilst carrying him across the room.

Jayme wandered towards Becker as he headed down the corridor ahead of Matt, Connor and Lester, with Nick behind, keeping guard for the men. She glanced up at him, not knowing what to say, how could she straighten things out, why did everything get so complicated with everyone?

"We're all going to die aren't we?" Jess questioned; back in the control room. Jayme couldn't hear her voice very well, but she knew the exact words the woman had spoken, the same question lingered on her own mind; it most likely lingered on all of their minds.

"I'm sorry," She told the soldier beside her, keeping her voice low enough so that the four men behind couldn't hear.

"About what?" Becker asked, lowering his voice. He didn't look towards her, instead he kept the EMD high, looking ahead; staying prepared for any future predators that decided to attack.

"Not telling you the truth, not realising it was all important, you know the whole Philip thing; basically for helping end the world," She responded, raising her own EMD into the air as they turned a corner in the corridor.

"Don't, don't be sorry, I shouldn't have doubted you, I should've listened to you instead of not believing that you didn't know that this would happen,"

"Yeah, well, I guess I kind of brought it on myself, didn't I?"

"This isn't your fault Jayme, don't ever think it is," Becker whispered, glancing at her quickly before shooting his head back up into position.

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Abby stood in front of Jess, who was frozen against the wall, too scared to speak. She didn't want to die; she didn't want any of her team members to die. But those creatures were so fast, so agile, so dangerous, she wasn't sure they even had a chance. And if they managed to come out of this alive, they still had an anomaly to deal with.

"Jess, have you got a laptop here?" The blonde asked suddenly, she may just have an idea on how to beat these things.

Jess nodded her head, "Yeah, yeah," She whispered.

"Good, don't worry, I've got an idea. It's going to be ok," She tilted her head towards Emily who glanced over at the blonde, "Listen, we've beaten these creatures before, we'll beat them again," She reassured, flickering her gaze between both Emily and Jess as the plan formed in her head.

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"Will it hold?" Matt questioned, watching as Becker and Jayme wandered back down the steps, away from the medical bay.

"Yeah, he'll be safe for now," Becker assured.

"Ok, you two sweep through this way, we'll meet you at Connor's lab," Matt told them, while glancing over at Connor and Nick who stood watch. Jayme nodded at Matt before following Becker through the corridor behind them, away from the three men who wandered down the other.

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Jess hurried over to Abby, laptop in hand. She set out it for the blonde, stepping back as she watched what Abby was planning on doing now.

"Your secret weapon is sound?" Emily questioned, apprehensively.

"Not exactly, but disrupted sound should seriously mess them up. They work on sonar, it means they pick up on immeasurable sound, pitch and noises way beyond our hearing. I'm going to overload their nasty little brains,"

"Will it be enough to kill them?"

"No, but it should slow them down enough for us to shoot them. If I can just access the file..."

Emily spun around swiftly as a predator shot through the room, speed faster than anyone of them could comprehend. Jess jumped back, taking cover as it charged through the room at the three girls. Abby lifted her EMD back up from the table, joining Emily as they attempted to shoot the predator. It was too quick, every time they tried to hit it, it simply moved to another spot in one rapid movement. The thing growled and clicked at them as the EMD bullets ripped through the air towards it. Jess crouched behind the table, unarmed, watching the scene. Abby appeared back from behind the pillar, shooting more ammo at it as it rushed in different directions. Then it was gone. Emily took a couple steps to the left, checking around the corner for the predator. It was nowhere in sight. The pair glanced round the room, the metal shutters rippled beside them; the thing was still in here, but where? The noise faded turning the room back into the eerie silence that overcame it.

"Where did it go?" Emily asked, moving slowly across the floor as she searched the area, hoping the creature wouldn't come back, but she knew it would, when they least expect it.

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**If you're a fan of Sherlock Holmes, or even if you're not, you should check out this story my friend is writing, it's a new twist on the characters, and it will be extremely weird and wonderful! :) Just add this link to the end of the fanfiction website... /s/8580700/1/The-Adventures-of-Dr-Lemon**

**Her username is: SamJoeStoryWriter**


	24. Chapter Twenty-Three: Sacrifices

Jess stood back up, creeping behind Emily and Abby, trying her best not to make a sound and alert a predator.

"Wait here," Abby murmured, before slowly moving back towards the laptop in hopes to find the file with the sound wave on.

The three of them wandered over to the other side of the table, slowly. Another noise sounded, close to where they stood. Emily turned her gaze to the left of her, waiting for a sign of movement. There was one quick blur before Abby was thrown to the floor, her back hitting against the ground painfully. Emily shot her weapon up in the air, pressing the trigger to release the ammo. The EMD wouldn't power up, the lights on the weapon dimming until they were out.

"I'm out!" Emily shrieked; realising the EMD had lost all of its power.

Abby used her feet to push herself along the floor, away from the creature as she stared into its mutated face. It creeped closer to the blonde, growling with every movement as it tracked her heart beat. Just as it raised its claws in the air, ready to slash the blonde, Jess clicked on the sound file. The creature backed away slightly, screeching in pain. Abby heard the EMD shoot through the predator before it dropped to the floor defencelessly.

"That's the first one I've managed to hit," Becker stated as he wandered over to Abby, offering a hand to help her up onto her feet. Thankfully, he had arrived just in time.

"Thank you," Abby added, as she stood up, "Becker!" She exclaimed as another creature fell into her sight, rushing towards them with immense speed. Becker tried shooting it, but it simply dodged the bullets as if it were the simplest task. Abby rushed over to the laptop, replaying the sound wave to overload the creature's brain. It stopped in standstill, almost paralyzed with a sound the team members couldn't hear. Becker lowered his gun, walking over to observe the creature. He sent one EMD shot straight through its head, knocking the predator to the ground. Another couple shots hit the creature as the soldier made sure that it wouldn't get back up again.

"Nice plan, Abby," He told the blonde whilst hooking the EMD around his arm by the strap.

"Yeah, your method's better than mine, I just try shooting them," Jayme stated, as she headed over to the predators that lay on the floor of the main control room.

"We better get back to Connor's lab," Becker announced, glancing over at Jayme so that she would follow him.

They arrived into lab just as Connor finished typing data into his laptop. Matt stood opposite him, holding some sort of case, one that would hold the anomaly so that they could transport it.

"Alright, it's safe. Ok Matt, when I tell you to close it, do it in one fluent movement, alright?" Connor questioned, watching the team leader nervously as he lifted the case onto the desk behind the anomaly. "Good luck," He added.

"Cheers," Matt murmured, as he held the container steadily behind the small anomaly.

Connor gasped anxiously as the case came closer to the ball of energy. "Close it," He instructed, leading Matt to shut the case around the anomaly, trapping it inside the metal cylinder. "That's good," He stated, powering up the container so that it would stay locked.

Becker breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Matt lift the container from the desk, the anomaly remaining inside, and intact. Jayme watched the scene uneasily, if something went wrong, then this really would be it, there couldn't be any more solutions, the world would end.

"Look no offence, but do you really think this is going to work?" Becker asked, glancing at Connor and Matt.

"Well, we've got three options. One; we merge this with Philip's anomaly, it makes the big one unstable, it closes, and the plan's worked." Connor responded.

"Two; nothing happens, and it doesn't change a thing, right?" Matt added, looking over at Connor.

"Right,"

"So far I prefer option one, what's option three?" Becker questioned.

"It makes the big one even more powerful and it accelerates the whole apocalyptic end of the world type thing. Basically, not good," Connor answered, an uneasy expression settling on his face.

Nick dropped his guard in the corridor and moved into the room, "Let's find out then, ready?" He questioned; hoping the first option that Connor had just listed was the only one that worked.

"Yeah," Matt murmured, bending down to reach the case with the anomaly inside and helping Connor carry it out of the lab. Only one last place to go, now they were really hoping that this would work, no one wanted to know what would happen if it didn't.

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"We're good," Connor stated, releasing a sigh as he checked to see if the anomaly was still held inside the container.

"I'll go rig the car," Becker announced, stepping back from the boot of the vehicle and moving around to the driver's seat.

"Ok," Connor mumbled, his eyes not moving from the container.

Emily walked over to Matt who stood gazing at the enormous ball of energy that was situated over the ruins of the New Dawn building. She watched him carefully, he didn't move, he just stared at the anomaly, deep in thought.

"You're going to drive it yourself?" She asked. She knew the answer, yet she really hoped it wasn't true.

"It's the only chance we have," He stated, before turning around and facing the woman, a gentle look in his eyes. "You know what I have to do. It's all about this,"

"If you fail, you die. If you succeed, if you change the future, you might never have even existed," She responded, tears growing in her brown eyes. She didn't want him to go, not after all of this. She'd developed deep care for the man standing in front of her; she didn't want to have to lose him now. "You could just... disappear," She murmured, holding back the tears.

"Hey," He whispered, as he lifted a finger to her lips. He dropped it immediately, pulling her close to him and placing a small kiss upon her lips. She closed her eyes, a tear falling down her cheek. He moved back, gazing into her eyes, those beautiful brown eyes he loved. "It's ok," He assured before stepping back and heading towards the other team members. "Ready?" He asked, jogging over to the car.

"Ready," Cutter responded, stepping back from the vehicle.

"Just need to secure the steering wheel with the seatbelt," Becker added, wandering away from the group.

"Forget about that," Matt stated as he rushed over to the car door and into the driver's seat, ignoring the confusion and protests from his team members. He started the car quickly and pressed his foot into the pedal. Becker and Connor ran after the vehicle, the shouts dying out into the background as Matt drove further away from them and closer to the anomaly. The team watched in shock as the car headed into the growing ball of energy, soon disappearing into the light. The ground trembled as the anomaly began spinning out of control, the glass-like shards of energy spacing further apart. They covered their eyes quickly as the beam of light shot out in all directions, the anomaly exploding in a fury of radiance. A gust of wind attacked the team as they shouted at Matt who was lost in a blast of energy. The light increased, blinding the area, before deteriorating to its original shape. For a moment, they thought the plan had failed, until the destroyed building around it flew up into the air, swirling round the ball of energy. The anomaly dragged the pieces inside of it, shrinking into a solid ball of light. The energy grew smaller, the anomaly slowly weakening. In one final swift movement, the anomaly shrunk into a tiny beam of light before disappearing from sight. Jayme released the breath she was holding as she realised the anomaly had disappeared. The plan had worked, Matt had sacrificed himself for the world, and he had saved it. He had completed the work he was sent here to do, he had saved them all. Smoke billowed from the destruction, stinging their eyes as it covered the area. Cutter moved over to Emily, holding her close as she stared at the anomaly Matt had disappeared into. The tears fell from her face as she buried her head into his arm. Why did he have to leave her? Why did he have to sacrifice himself in order to protect them? She just wanted him back, she just wanted Matt back. Becker stepped forward, moving beside Jayme as they all stared at the smoke. It was over, the anomaly was gone; they had done it. What now?


	25. Chapter Twenty-Four: Her Goodbye

Connor took a step forward, eyeing the ruins of the building where the anomaly was. A darkened figure grew through the smoke; he couldn't work out what it was. It seemed so faded in the grey smoulder yet he could tell that it was moving. The rest of the team looked over to where Connor's eyes were focused on, there was definitely something moving towards them from out of the smoke. Emily pulled away from Nick, wandering forward slightly as she gazed at the figure.

"Matt?" She whispered, talking to no one but herself.

The sound of the gravel crunching came into focus as the figure drew closer, now they could see it was a man. His face became clear as the smoke drifted away into the air, it was exactly who they hoped it was, it was Matt.

"Matt!" Emily shouted, rushing over to the man, soon followed by the rest of the team, excluding Jayme who simply watched from behind. Emily laughed in glee as he brought her into an embrace, he hadn't left her; he had survived. The other members fell into a group hug, relieved that he had made it back alive after saving the world.

"It's so good to see you," Connor stated, smiling brightly at his team leader. "I'd say we did it, do you think we changed the future?"

"Yeah," Matt replied, resting an arm around Emily's shoulder and holding her close to his side. "I think so,"

"Matt, what about my truck?" Becker questioned, glancing over at the man. "No! Oh well, I guess we'll just walk back to the ARC," He added, slightly disappointed at the loss of his car.

The group of seven turned around and began to walk across the gravel. Matt and Emily with their arms around each other, Abby and Connor hand in hand, and Jayme, Nick and Becker behind them, walking separately.

As they headed into the ARC's main control room, Jess came straight up to them, face now clean of blood and tears.

"How's Lester?" Connor questioned, after waving at the field co-ordinator.

"He's going to be ok, he's already threatening to sack the medics," Jess stated, smiling at her team members as they all entered the room. They wandered down the steps into the centre of room; Connor reached his hand out at Abby's arm so that she would turn to face him.

"Abby, could I just have a word?" He asked her as she stepped back up from the step she was on.

"Yeah," She murmured.

"Erm, I wanted to... you know the, the whispered thing,"

"Whisper?"

"Well, yeah, when we were in the future, you said that when we were back, and you know when all of this was over; then you, you said you were going to, you said, you said you'd... Great, you don't remember," Connor stated, nervously.

Abby smiled at him as he struggled to find the words he wanted to say, "Connor," She began in a murmur; he turned his head back to face her.

"Yep?"

"Temple, will you marry me?" She finished, looking up at him with big blue eyes.

"I'll have to think about it," He responded, smiling back at her.

"Forget it," She muttered, spinning around to walk away from him.

"Yes," He added, "So yes," Abby came back to him, laughing. She brought her hand up to his cheek. She sent him another smile before pressing her lips against his, she was engaged to the man she loved, she had never been happier.

"Oh please, stop fussing, I am perfectly capable of walking by myself," Lester stated, as his wheelchair was pushed into the main control room by Becker.

"Here we are; how are you feeling Lester?" Becker asked, smirking at Abby and Connor.

"What an idiotic question, how do you think I'm feeling?"

"It's so good to see you," Abby stated, wandering down towards her boss and the rest of the group.

"I take it this means we won then?" Lester questioned, whilst standing up from his wheelchair, groaning in pain from the wound on his side. "You did it," He added, shaking Matt's hand in appreciation. "Guess this means we're stuck with you now,"

"Guess it does," Matt agreed, glancing over at Emily and smiling at her.

"I think we should keep the whole man from the future thing to ourselves, don't you? The minister's confused enough as it is,"

"Well this is turning into a surprisingly good day," Connor stated, grinning at the team. "You know, with us saving the world,"

"I suppose that's the end of the anomalies," Lester added, a slight questionable tone in his voice.

"It is possible Philip's machine might have closed the anomalies forever," Matt mentioned.

"That'd be really weird, being normal again," Connor muttered, glancing around at his team members, his friends.

The team were distracted by the sound of a phone ringing, coming from Lester's office. He looked up at it, curious to know who it was from. Jess moved forward, running up to the office to grab the phone, it was easier than Lester trying to do it.

"Ah, only two people have that number, one's the minister and the other's my wife, either way I think I'm ready for an earful," Lester stated. He used his walking stick to wander over to Jess and take the phone, bringing it to his ear as he answered it. "James Lester," He announced over the phone line, "Understood," He replied after a moment's silence. He ended the call and pushed the phone into his pocket, "So much for being normal, Connor. Train's just left King's Cross, and disappeared into thin air. Does that sound familiar to anyone? Anomalies! Chop, chop!"

"Everyone grab a black-box," Jess instructed as the team ran over to prepare for the new anomaly, getting back into their normal routine, looks like their job wasn't over after all. Thankfully, that's exactly what they had wanted, no matter how dangerous it got.

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The cars pulled up outside the station of King's Cross, parking as close to the entrance as possible. The team secured themselves with EMD's, and Connor grabbed the Anomaly Locking Mechanism out from the back of the vehicle.

"Right, I'll go warn the station, tell them to postpone any oncoming trains so the track's clear, Emily you come with me. The rest of you check for the anomaly, we're going to have to do search and rescue mission through it, we can't exactly let a train full of people go missing. Be careful, we'll meet up with you soon," Matt informed.

The team set off towards the station, Emily and Matt soon heading off towards the office, whereas Abby, Connor, Becker, Jayme and Nick wandered down onto the tracks. The station didn't seem too full today, that was lucky; at least they weren't delaying huge amounts of people from getting to their destination. It took another ten minutes of walking down the tracks before they spotted the anomaly, a nice regular sized anomaly. Connor placed the container of the locking mechanism on the ground beside the track, and powered up his EMD, along with everyone else.

"Ready?" Cutter asked, glancing along at his team members.

"Yeah, let's go," Connor responded, leading the five people to disappear through the ball of energy into another time, another place.

The train hadn't travelled far, as soon as they stepped out onto the forest of the late Jurassic they had found it, sprawled out across the ground. There was no sign of any people, all they hoped was that they were still alive and hadn't wandered off. Jayme watched as the team rushed over to the different sections of the train, ready to pull open the doors. Becker turned his head back towards her, realising she wasn't following. She didn't look at him; she just watched the scene ahead of her, her mind deep in thought.

"Are you coming?" He asked, suddenly appearing in front of her.

"I can't," She murmured, still averting his gaze.

"What do you mean you can't?"

"I-I can't stay here,"

"What are you talking about?"

"I have to go, I can't do this,"

"Back to the present, right?"

She shook her head, finally looking up into his eyes. "I don't belong on this team; I don't belong in the present, not yet. I don't know who I am; I never really knew to be honest. I need to find myself, and I can't do that while working alongside all of you. I mean, my mother used me, she took advantage of me, I didn't think she would ever do that. I had finally found my birth mother, and the truth is, she didn't even care, about me, about anyone,"

"Are you trying to say you're going to just run, live in the past again?"

"Tell my dad I love him, and that I'm sorry," She whispered, turning around to walk away. He grabbed her arm, pulling her back to face him. He looked into her eyes, watching as the tears formed in them, she couldn't go; he didn't want her to, why was she convinced she had to?

"You can't go," He stated, loosening his grip on her arm.

"Becker, I have to. I'm sorry for everything I put you and your team through, but this isn't my life, I've barely had any control over my life and I need to figure that out before I start taking orders. I just wanted you to know that. And that I hope you won't hate me for everything I did. I really cared about you, it's strange, but I did, and I'm so sorry. But it's time for me to leave, I hope you understand, goodbye Becker," She finished. She started to walk away, after taking one last glance at the team who were checking on the people inside the train. The truth was that now she understood something, something that she didn't even know she was doing to herself. She felt exposed. She hadn't realised she had worn her secrets as armour until they were gone and now everyone could see her as who she really was. It was true self destruction. What scared her most was that she didn't even understand who she was, she had lost that a long time ago, now she had to get that back, now was her time to figure it out.

"Jayme!" He called, careful not to alert his team members, "I could never hate you," He stated, his voice quieter now. She sent him a small smile before disappearing through the trees. He was so tempted to run after her, how was he going to explain this to everyone, to Nick? She was gone, hidden behind conifers, he didn't know how far she had walked, or maybe she had ran; he had no idea. All he knew was that suddenly he felt alone, something he hadn't felt for a while now, something that he hoped wasn't going to last. If this feeling did last, he wasn't sure he could even go back to how his life was before. She had only been there for about four months, yet he couldn't remember how his normal life worked, he couldn't remember her not being there. If she truly was gone forever, he could only hope his life would slowly go back to normal, to how it was before she had entered his life, to how it was before she was all he could think about, simply to how it was before Jayme Cutter.

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**A/N: Looks like this is the end to this story. I really hoped you liked it and thank you so much for reading all the way to the end :)**

**I would love to know what you thought of it.**

**I'm going to start writing a sequel soon, if you actually liked this story, then I hope the second one meets your standards; if you decide to read it :) **


	26. Author's Note

Ok, basically, I'm re-writing this story slightly. The plot won't change, so for those who have read it, there is no need to reread it. That is unless you want to. I just feel that it could do with a bit of an edit, and go into a little more depth and detail in some parts, and since I'm having a little case of writer's block on the sequel, I thought it would be fun to do.

I've got the Prologue re-written, and I have a feeling that I might not get through all of the chapters, but there's no harm in, what I hope will be, improving some of it.

First chapter re-written.

Second chapter re-written.

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Anyway, if you haven't read the sequel and would like to, or if you've just finished this story right now and didn't know what the sequel was, then I shall tell you. It's basically called **Unexpected, Unforgettable You. **I'm up to chapter twenty-two so far, it's not finished yet, but if you haven't read it, I'm begging you to read it. I respect your opinion if the sequel doesn't interest you, or if you don't enjoy reading it, but it would make me very happy if you gave it a try, for those of you who may not have read it. Thank you for reading :)

Here's the summary of the sequel:

**Becker can still remember the last time he saw Jayme Cutter; the day she disappeared into a forest of the Jurassic period. But that was three years ago, and a lot has changed since then. When a new anomaly opens, the team assume they're prepared. Rule number one: Never assume. Jayme's back on a personal mission; and she's brought along a familiar face. *Sequel to Self Destruction***


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